Horkheimer’s lifelong dialectics project opposed both scientism and irrationalist metaphysics

Evidence

While Marx achieved only a provisional presentation of the dialectical method in his works on the critique of political economy and on social theory, with Horkheimer the opposite was true, as the sequence of his works in the 1930s shows. The dialectics' project stood for the constant continuation of his work on the philosophical basis of social theory, and was his response to the restriction of rationality in the sciences which he had diagnosed in his Remarks on Science and the Crisis’, which appeared in the first issue of the ZfS, and to the hypostatization of this restricted rationality by `scientism’. In the face of the irrationalist rejection of the sciences in various forms of metaphysics, dialectics was intended at the same time to present, as an alternative, a critique of science which would go further, and which would at the same time be able to integrate within itself the corrections which metaphysics could provide. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 726

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what ‘dialectical logic’ meant for Horkheimer as a middle path between restricted scientific rationality and metaphysical irrationalism.
• XREF: connects to: Horkheimer’s dialectical concept of nature-domination was attacked from both rationalism and irrationalism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 547; Horkheimer directed his critique at both positivism and metaphysics — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1454; Horkheimer’s anti-metaphysics grew from Nietzsche, Dilthey and Bergson — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 205 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer directed his critique at both positivism and metaphysics #corroborates (0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1454
• Horkheimer’s dialectics project responded to scientific rationality’s restriction and scientism. #corroborates (0.90) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 726
• The irrationality of society did not justify abandoning dialectical theory #expands (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2396
• Horkheimer’s anti-metaphysics grew from Nietzsche, Dilthey and Bergson #complicates (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 205