Failed attempts to realize philosophy retroactively justify its continued relevance.

Evidence

Philosophy, which once seemed obsolete, lives on because the moment to realize it was missed. The summary judgement that it had merely interpreted the world, that resignation in the face of reality had crippled it in itself, becomes a defeatism of reason after the attempt to change the world miscarried … Perhaps it was an inadequate interpretation which promised that it would be put into practice. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2529

Categorization

• XREF: Directly inverts the famous Marx thesis that philosophy only interprets the world. — connects to: Philosophy survives because the moment to realize it was missed — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2529; Utopian thinking’s value survives even where its theoretical basis is flawed. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2321