Horkheimer grounded reason’s universality in language’s inherent intention.

Evidence

I ask myself whether we are not obliged to take this thesis out of the philosophers’ hands. Language intends, quite independently of the psychological intentions of the speaker, the universality that has been ascribed to reason alone. Interpreting this universality necessarily leads to the idea of a correct society. When it serves the status quo, language must therefore find that it consistently contradicts itself, and this is evident from individual linguistic structures themselves. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2158

Categorization

• XREF: This is the seed of Habermas’s theory of communicative action and the ideal speech situation — connects directly to later Habermas. — connects to: Horkheimer grounded Critical Theory in natural reason emanating from innate sympathies. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2155; Horkheimer read the equation of reason with language as a denial of objective truth — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2157; Everyday language itself contains a utopian comprehensive rationality. (+1 more)
• SEED: An essay could trace the 1941 Horkheimer-Adorno ‘reason and language’ exchange as the buried genealogy of Habermas’s universal pragmatics.

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer grounded Critical Theory in natural reason emanating from innate sympathies. #contradicts (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2155
• Horkheimer read the equation of reason with language as a denial of objective truth #contradicts (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2157