Horkheimer held Soviet hopes as a clinging against appearances, not evidence.

Evidence

In a letter to Adorno, he mentioned that we still have to elaborate these positive formulations for ourselves. The weakness of them affects the conclusion of the work on the authoritarian state as well.' — <cite>Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1159</cite> (#corroborates`, via linked claim)

Horkheimer emphasized that the view that the dialectic between the various forms of human power and the various obsolete forms of society resulting from the conflict with nature' represents the motor of history’ must not become a universal structural plan which would take the place of concrete research, but was merely a formulation of historical experience corresponding to present knowledge'. However, he did not turn to the investigation of the real reasons why differentiated state and social systems have superseded less developed ones’. Instead, his interest was focused on progress and rationality in the theoretical field. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 487 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Horkheimer himself distrusted the hopeful elements in his authoritarian state essay. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1159; Horkheimer treated the dialectic of history as a hypothesis, not a structural plan — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 487

Related

• Horkheimer himself distrusted the hopeful elements in his authoritarian state essay. (similarity 0.91)
• Horkheimer treated the dialectic of history as a hypothesis, not a structural plan (similarity 0.89)
• Horkheimer’s state capitalism theory rested on speculative philosophy of history rather than evidence (similarity 0.83)
• Horkheimer framed Soviet events as a desperate extension of a struggle against social injustice. (similarity 0.82)
• Horkheimer’s worldview drew on collective Jewish experience, not only Marxism (similarity 0.81)
• The Holocaust’s unbelievability and Western inaction drove Horkheimer from revolution theory to civilization theory. (similarity 0.81)
• Writing Dialectic of Enlightenment left Horkheimer intellectually exhausted (similarity 0.80)
• Horkheimer and Adorno backed individual improvement over any political organization (similarity 0.80)
• Horkheimer’s logic implied the USA carried a greater fascist potential than Germany. (similarity 0.80)
• Horkheimer saw anti-communist obsession as blinding statesmen to real threats to peace. (similarity 0.80)
• Horkheimer saw postwar Germany as the world’s decisive battleground for intellectual survival. (similarity 0.80)
• Horkheimer saw authoritarianism as an old absolutist form mediated by liberalism (similarity 0.80)
• Adorno paradoxically hoped more for post-Hitler Germany than for the USA (similarity 0.80)
• Horkheimer saw isolated individuals’ words as a real political power against totalitarian states. (similarity 0.80)
• Horkheimer and Adorno claimed their dialectic critique held regardless of Nazism’s existence (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer himself distrusted the hopeful elements in his authoritarian state essay. #corroborates (0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1159
• Horkheimer treated the dialectic of history as a hypothesis, not a structural plan #corroborates (0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 487