Empiricism’s atomism prevents followers from connecting facts into political conclusions

Evidence

One cannot write for a reader formed in this tradition—one cannot even come to terms with one’s own historical formation—without taking this influential conceptual opponent into account; and it is this, if you like, which makes up the tendentious part of my book, which gives it its political and philosophical cutting edge, so to speak. For the bankruptcy of the liberal tradition is as plain on the philosophical level as it is on the political: which does not mean that it has lost its prestige or ideological potency. On the contrary: the anti-speculative bias of that tradition, its emphasis on the individual fact or item at the expense of the network of relationships in which that item may be embedded, continue to encourage submission to what is by preventing its followers from making connections, and in particular from drawing the otherwise unavoidable conclusions on the political level. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 12

Categorization

• XREF: This claim that Anglo-American empiricism forestalls political connection-making echoes Lukács’s critique of reified bourgeois thought and the Frankfurt School’s account of positivism as ideology. Also connects to Horkheimer/Adorno’s critique of the Enlightenment. — connects to: Anglo-American empiricism blocks political connection-making by isolating individual facts; Empiricism that excludes man-made context becomes ideology — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 454; Information is structurally prevented from becoming genuine thought — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry: Selected Essays…, 126 (+6 more)
• DEFINE: Defines dialectical thinking negatively against the Anglo-American tradition: it is precisely the emphasis on relationships/networks rather than isolated facts.

Broader Connections

• Empiricism that excludes man-made context becomes ideology #expands (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 454
• Information is structurally prevented from becoming genuine thought #expands (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 126
• A claim’s falsity does not bar it from structuring thought #corroborates (0.78) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 179