Critical Theory seeks the universal within the particular rather than above it

Evidence

Categories have to be formed through a process of induction that is the reverse of the traditional inductive method, which verified its hypotheses by collecting individual experiences until they attained the weight of universal laws. Induction in social theory, per contra, should seek the universal within the particular, not above or beyond it, and, instead of moving from one particular to another and then to the heights of abstraction, should delve deeper and deeper into the particular and discover the universal law therein. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 724

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the inverted induction central to Critical Theory’s methodology.
• XREF: connects to: Changed historical conditions forced critical theory from immanent to transcendent critique — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 190; Critical Theory rejected both free-floating and rooted views of the intellectual — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 301; Universalist and particularist sensibilities coexisted within the same thinkers — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An…, 1744 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Philosophic universals designate unrealized potentialities rather than existing states #expands (0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 753
• Universalist and particularist sensibilities coexisted within the same thinkers #corroborates (0.78) — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1744
• Absolutized Theory misreads Marx by omitting his movement between abstraction levels #expands (0.75)
• Theoretical universalizations can recuperate difference into old Enlightenment universalist frameworks #complicates (0.72) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 409
• Critical thinking requires transcendent standards rather than society’s own norms #qualifies (0.72) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 17