Horkheimer accepted Neumann’s evidence while retaining Engels’s prediction of statism

Evidence

Horkheimer replied: As I have boundless confidence in your research on economic processes in Germany, I do believe your statement that Germany is not in a situation remotely resembling that of state capitalism. On the other hand, I cannot free myself from Engels’s view that society is moving towards precisely that. I must therefore assume that the approach of such a period very probably still threatens us. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 307

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why does Horkheimer privilege a philosophy-of-history prognosis over a collaborator’s direct research findings?