Habermas’s 1965 inaugural lecture opened his offensive against positivism.

Evidence

In the summer of 1965, Habermas gave his inaugural lecture as Horkheimer’s successor on `Knowledge and Human Interests’. The lecture showed that he was finally taking the offensive in the clash with positivism (this concept was still being used by both Habermas and Adornonot out of any ignorance of change and progress in the scientistic camp, which treated the currently dominant form of scientific research as an absolute, but rather in order to retain a generic concept that took account of central elements ultimately common to various positions). — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 603

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to the chapter’s positivist dispute material and to Habermas’s role as Horkheimer’s successor at Frankfurt.