Critical Theory’s freedom consists in accepting bourgeois ideals in their distorted or manipulated forms.

Evidence

Habermas appealed to the idea of democracy'explicitly acknowledging his debt to Critical Theory’. Quoting from an aphorism in the Dialectic of Enlightenment, he stated that Critical Theory’s freedom consisted of the fact that `it accepts bourgeois ideals, either those that are still promulgated by the representatives of the bourgeoisie, although in distorted forms, or those that can still be recognized as giving objective significance to technical and cultural institutions, despite having been manipulated in every way.’ The idea of democracythat legitimate state power is mediated by the free and express consensus of all citizenslay at the roots of the bourgeois constitutional state. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2341

By contrast, Habermas appealed to the idea of democracy'explicitly acknowledging his debt to Critical Theory’. Quoting from an aphorism in the Dialectic of Enlightenment, he stated that Critical Theory’s freedom consisted of the fact that `it accepts bourgeois ideals, either those that are still promulgated by the representatives of the bourgeoisie, although in distorted forms, or those that can still be recognized as giving objective significance to technical and cultural institutions, despite having been manipulated in every way.’ … The idea of democracythat legitimate state power is mediated by the free and express consensus of all citizenslay at the roots of the bourgeois constitutional state. It continued to give objective significance to existing institutions in Germany; and the goal must be to communicate a sense of the validity of the idea of democracy, even if that sense of validity was merely being created by manipulative methods. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 578

Categorization

• DEFINE: A precise statement of what Critical Theory ‘freedom’ means for Habermas at this stage — a key definitional anchor for the reader’s institutional history of the school.
• XREF: Directly ties Habermas’s position back to Dialectic of Enlightenment and the internal Frankfurt School lineage — a connection the reader is tracking across this book. — connects to: Marx maintains inequality and unfreedom are inherent realizations of exchange-based freedom. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 804; Liberated capitalist subjects may use their freedom to dismantle capitalism itself; Liberation movements inherit the deformity of what they oppose — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 196
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2341; Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 578

Broader Connections

• Liberation movements inherit the deformity of what they oppose #qualifies (0.90) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 196
• Marx maintains inequality and unfreedom are inherent realizations of exchange-based freedom. #complicates (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 804
• Liberated capitalist subjects may use their freedom to dismantle capitalism itself #complicates (0.72)