Critical theory has an inner political dynamic demanding concrete positions

Evidence

You know as well as I do how fundamental the difference is between the work the Institute did in the 1930s and the work it is doing in today’s Germany. The qualitative difference is not derived from the development of the theory: the `grants’ you mention so incidentallyare they really so incidental? You know that we agree in our rejection of any immediate politicization of the theory. But our (old) theory has an inner political content, an inner political dynamic, which today, more than in the past, presses for a concrete political position. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2671

Categorization

• DEFINE: Marcuse articulates the core Frankfurt School position that theory itself carries political content even while rejecting immediate politicization.
• XREF: Echoes the standing tension across the Frankfurt School corpus between theory’s political charge and Adorno/Krahl’s insistence on refusing instrumentalization. — connects to: Critical social theory is inherently a hopeful project of transcending existing society. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1903; Critical analysis exposes ordinarily invisible contradictions within liberal democracies — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice: Society,…, 78; Critical theory’s concepts aim to terminate in actual social transformation — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 89 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Critical analysis exposes ordinarily invisible contradictions within liberal democracies #expands (0.70) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 78