Horkheimer’s late institutional caution came from fear of his own declining productivity

Evidence

There may have been something else as well that made Horkheimer shrink from carrying through the plan for the journal: fear of no longer being productive enough, even with Adorno’s collaboration, and a feeling that he would no longer be able to show enough incisiveness in social philosophythe field that had always been closest to his heartin exposing social conflicts and in attacking intellectual collaboration that played down their significance. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 496

Categorization

• QUESTION: How much of the Institute’s late quietism was structural versus simply Horkheimer’s personal decline is left open by the author’s own hedge (‘There may have been’).
• XREF: connects to: Horkheimer’s strategic indecision was a survival response to permanent insecurity — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 431; Adorno’s fear of losing institutional security pushed Horkheimer toward a more cautious succession plan. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 484; Horkheimer’s fear of dwindling finances redirected the Institute toward the dialectics book — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1042 (+5 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Horkheimer’s strategic indecision was a survival response to permanent insecurity — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 431; Adorno’s fear of losing institutional security pushed Horkheimer toward a more cautious succession plan. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 484; Horkheimer’s fear of dwindling finances redirected the Institute toward the dialectics book — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1042 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Financial insecurity drove Horkheimer to criticize the bourgeoisie yet bind himself to it #complicates (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 272