Horkheimer’s reason essay folded a sociological motif into a philosophy-of-history motif

Evidence

The testing out of Adorno’s ideas within a framework of research inquiries based on a mass of material seemed long overdue, both in relation to the article on the philosophy of music and in relation to the articles on the dialectic of culture and barbarism. With Horkheimer, the situation was similar. His article on reason was a pot-pourri of fragments of thought in which two main motifs may be recognized. The first was sociological: the observation of a tendency towards eliminating all mediations between the individual and society. The second was connected with the philosophy of history: the observation of a tendency for thought to refine itself by excluding reason. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 335

Categorization

• XREF: Ties these essays to the Institute’s empirical workplace and worker studies, where the sociological motif was actually tested out. — connects to: Horkheimer’s 1937 essays merged theory of science with social psychology — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 203; Horkheimer mapped rationalism and irrationalism onto distinct class-historical conditions — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 547; The Horkheimer-Neumann split pitted philosophy-of-history against reformist Marxism (+3 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Horkheimer’s 1937 essays merged theory of science with social psychology — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 203; Horkheimer mapped rationalism and irrationalism onto distinct class-historical conditions — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 547; The Horkheimer-Neumann split pitted philosophy-of-history against reformist Marxism (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer subordinated empirical anti-Semitism research to abstract theory as mere illustration #complicates (0.71) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 342