For Horkheimer socialism depends on trained human action, not immanent historical logic

Evidence

Horkheimer made no mention of any tendencies towards economic collapse, or of any collective learning processes on the part of the proletariat. `The socialist order of society … is historically possible. But it will not be realized through any logic immanent in history. It will be realized, either by human beings trained in theory and determined to achieve better conditions, or not at all.’ In Horkheimer’s analysis, however, use of the theory to clarify conditions and a determination to achieve better ones were two distinct things. He saw the development of the capitalist production process, characterized by the increasing application of technology, as the cause of the continuing division of the working class into one part that was employed, whose daily lives were colourless but who had more to lose than just their chains, and another part that was unemployed, whose lives were hell, but who were not in a position to be educated or organized. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 195

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the deterministic vs. voluntarist Marxism debate — Horkheimer breaking from the orthodox Second International ‘iron laws of history’ reading, resonant with Lukács and later Western Marxism generally. — connects to: Horkheimer held state capitalism could persist without racism and parody classless society — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1158; Each Frankfurt theorist’s doctrine shaped his verdict on direct action — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2657; Horkheimer treated the dialectic of history as a hypothesis, not a structural plan — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 487 (+1 more)
• DEFINE: Defines Horkheimer’s position that socialism is historically possible but not guaranteed — a pivotal anti-determinist claim in critical theory.

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer and Adorno rejected history as autonomous substance and grounded theory in social material #corroborates (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 186