Frankfurt School theory resists phase division because its internal tensions drifted unsynchronized

Evidence

As for the variants and alterations to the theory' in the course of this history, the scope of these is so large, and they are so unsynchronized, that a division into phases for the Frankfurt School’ is virtually impossible. The best we can do is to speak of various tendencies to drift apart: the drifting apart of theory and praxis, of philosophy and science, of the critique of reason and the rescuing of reason, of theoretical work and the work of the Institute, of the refusal to be reconciled and the refusal to be discouraged. The various chapters of the book indicate phases of this drifting apart. At the same time, they show the undiminished critical potential of either one or another form of Critical Theory when it is seen in context. At the end, we come to the remarkable continuation of both poles of Critical Theorythe Adorno and Horkheimer forms of itby the younger generation of Critical Theorists. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 21

Categorization

• XREF: Anticipates the Adorno-Horkheimer split that later chapters will detail; the ‘drifting apart’ framing offers a structuring device for thinking about the school’s internal fracture lines. — connects to: The Frankfurt School is a retrospective construction mixing two distinct phases — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 10; The Frankfurt School’s residual faith in reason tempered its Weberian pessimism — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 782; Frankfurt School’s interdisciplinarity failed to yield divergent analytic output — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 573 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• The Frankfurt School’s residual faith in reason tempered its Weberian pessimism #corroborates (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 782
• The Frankfurt School resists simple classification as a precursor to postmodernism #corroborates (0.82) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 21
• The Frankfurt School saw Enlightenment’s collapse into totalitarianism as latent in its own reason #exemplifies (0.80) — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 342
• Frankfurt School’s interdisciplinarity failed to yield divergent analytic output #complicates (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 573
• Frankfurt School theorists pioneered analysis of mass culture and working-class integration #qualifies (0.72) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 22