Critical theory’s truth is validated by insight, not by majority or victory

Evidence

The circle of transmitters of this tradition is neither limited nor renewed by organic or sociological laws. It is constituted and maintained not by biological or testamentary inheritance, but by a knowledge which brings its own obligations with it. And even this knowledge guarantees only a contemporary, not a future community of transmitters. The theory may be stamped with the approval of every logical criterion, but to the end of the age it will lack the seal of approval which victory brings. Until then, too, the struggle will continue to grasp it aright and to apply it. A version of it which has the propaganda apparatus and a majority on its side is not therefore the better one. In the general historical upheaval the truth may reside with numerically small groups of men. History teaches us that such groups, hardly noticed even by those opposed to the status quo, outlawed but imperturbable, may at the decisive moment become the leaders because of their deeper insight. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 640

Categorization

• XREF: Anti-majoritarian epistemology echoes the rejection of the ‘victory seal’ as truth criterion — connectable to the reader’s broader critical theory reading on non-identitarian thinking. — connects to: Critical Theory’s legitimate authority is reason itself, dissolving the state distinction — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 397; Theory is contested conjunctural knowledge, not will to truth; Historical truth is not validated by success or acceptance — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 784 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Historical truth is not validated by success or acceptance #corroborates (0.90) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 784
• Theory is contested conjunctural knowledge, not will to truth #corroborates (0.85)
• Truth of a theory is independent of either its productivity or its non-application #corroborates (0.80)
• Appeals to common sense and proportion serve reigning power, not truth #corroborates (0.78) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 84