Horkheimer grounded Critical Theory in natural reason emanating from innate sympathies.

Evidence

Horkheimer, giving Schopenhauer a Marxist twist, had based his own view on the assumption that human beings have a natural need for happiness, natural sympathies and natural solidarity with other finite beings, and that these characteristics would win through as soon as humanity was freed from manipulation and the struggle for survival. This involved an assumption that there was a form of reason emanating from humanity’s natural qualities. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2155

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Horkheimer grounded reason’s universality in language’s inherent intention. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2158; Innate qualities constrain but do not abolish freedom within a situation — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 717; Horkheimer grounded ethics in desire as a fact needing no justification — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1464 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Innate qualities constrain but do not abolish freedom within a situation #expands (0.78) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 717