Critical Theory rejected both free-floating and rooted views of the intellectual

Evidence

In the present society, then, it would be a mistake to see intellectuals asfreischwebende (free-floating), to use the term Mannheim had taken from Alfred Weber and popularized. The ideal of a “freefloating” intellectual above the fray was a formalistic illusion, which should be discarded. At the same time, it would be equally erroneous to see the intellectual as entirely verwurzelr, rooted in his culture or class, as had volkisch and vulgar Marxist thinkers.’ Both extremes misconstrued subjectivity as either totally autonomous or totally contingent. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 301

Categorization

• DEFINE: Positions Critical Theory against both Mannheim’s free-floating intellectuals and völkisch rootedness — a central orientation point for the tradition.
• XREF: connects to: Critical Theory seeks the universal within the particular rather than above it — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 724; Institute critics rejected psychoanalytic ideology readings that ignored material class conditions

Broader Connections

• Critical Theory seeks the universal within the particular rather than above it #expands (0.78) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 724