Formalized reason renders theory incomprehensible and thought meaningful only without meaning.

Evidence

Once the last trace of emotion has been eradicated, nothing remains of thought but absolute tautology. The utterly pure reason of those who have divested themselves entirely of the ability ‘to conceive of an object even in its absence’, converges with pure unconsciousness, with feeble-mindedness in the most literal sense, for measured against the extravagantly realistic ideal of a datum freed of any categories, all knowledge is false, and true only where the question of truth or falsity cannot be applied. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 150 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

I think it is different when you genuinely feel the pressure on our language, to show its workings, to open itself to accessibility, to open a window, not to disable, not to close out, etc. But this cannot be done at the expense of serious thinking, because the last thing that we want is a rousing populist work that doesn’t tell us anything. My main problem with a great deal of work in Cultural Studies is that it didn’t tell us anything new. It was a circular exercise and the wonderful thing was that you could arrive back at the beginning by a very long and intellectually rewarding route: The bourgeoisie produces bourgeois culture which exercises bourgeois hegemony. Hooray! That is the last thing that anybody out there needs: to be told what they already know. They need the production of new knowledges. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 266 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Pure logical reasoning thrives in loneliness but produces empty pseudo-truth; Circular theory that only restates known conclusions produces no genuine knowledge — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 266; Pure reason without emotion becomes mere tautology and unconsciousness — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 150 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Pure reason without emotion becomes mere tautology and unconsciousness #corroborates (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 150
• Pure logical reasoning thrives in loneliness but produces empty pseudo-truth #corroborates (0.82)
• Circular theory that only restates known conclusions produces no genuine knowledge #corroborates (0.78) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 266