Critical theory functions as nourishment consumed and dissolved by living thought

Evidence

What the authors have in mind is a manner of thinking about society and experiencing society which does not promulgate conclusive theory or repeat it in the form of dogma, no more than it merely observes what is apparently the case and thus involuntarily shows its colours. Its relationship to theory would be comparable with that of the eater to his bread: theory is consumed by thought; thought lives on theory; and theory vanishes into thought. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2392

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets out the authors’ redefinition of theory’s role: neither dogma nor observation but something metabolized by thinking itself.
• DEEPTHINKING: The eater-bread metaphor captures a genuinely distinctive epistemology — theory as consumed and dissolved rather than applied or confirmed — worth sitting with.
• XREF: connects to: Thought requires active engagement with a modifying cultural environment to be real — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1254

Broader Connections

• Thought requires active engagement with a modifying cultural environment to be real #expands (0.78) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1254