Horkheimer broke with Marxist orthodoxy by treating irrationalism as heterogeneous

Evidence

In seeing the irrationalism of the thirties basically as an ideology of passivity, Horkheimer neglected its dynamic and destructive sides, which the Nazis were able to exploit. This was a blind spot in his analysis. But in another way he enriched the discussion of its historical development. In distinguishing between different types of irrationalism, Horkheimer broke with the tradition of hostility towards Lebensphilosophie maintained by almost all Marxist thinkers, including the later Lukacs. In addition to approving of its antisystematic impulse, Horkheimer gave qualified praise to the emphasis on the individual in the work of both Dilthey and Nietzsche. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 208

Categorization

• XREF: Shows Horkheimer’s dissident relation to Lukacs, relevant to the fuller portrait of Horkheimer across the History of Western Marxism literature. — connects to: Late capitalism’s irrationality thwarts the rational systematic theory Marx could achieve — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 903; Horkheimer approved Adorno’s thesis despite deeming it radically alien to his own philosophy — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 377; Horkheimer mapped rationalism and irrationalism onto distinct class-historical conditions — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 547

Broader Connections

• Late capitalism’s irrationality thwarts the rational systematic theory Marx could achieve #expands (0.82) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 903