Horkheimer periodized materialism by the historical shape of the happiness demand

Evidence

Various views here were characteristic of Horkheimer: (1) the assumption that there was a demand for happiness, which did not require any justification, among human beings who were reliant on solidarity with one another as mortal beings in a world which lacked any hereafter'; (2) emphasis on social history as an index of human instinctual structure and of human knowledge; (3) the conviction, in view of the advanced state of human control over nature, that humanity's demand for happiness has as its goal the reconciliation in practice of particular and general interests on the basis of a planned economy. — <cite>Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 545</cite> (#expands`, via linked claim)

When the desire for happiness, which life from beginning to end proves illusory, was put aside and hope alone was left, the alteration of those conditions which cause unhappiness could become the goal of materialist thought. This goal took on a different shape in varying historical situations. Given the evolution of productive forces in antiquity, even the materialist philosophers were forced in the face of suffering to elaborate techniques of an interior life; peace of soul is the only resort in the midst of distress when all external means fail. The materialism of the early bourgeois era aimed, on the contrary, at developing the knowledge of nature and attaining new powers of mastery over nature and man. The wretchedness of our own time is connected with the structure of society; social theory therefore forms the main content of contemporary materialism. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 544 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Horkheimer’s materialism rested on happiness as an unjustified demand resolvable through planning — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 545; Horkheimer’s materialism defined itself against happiness as illusory and toward social transformation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 544

Related

• Horkheimer’s materialism defined itself against happiness as illusory and toward social transformation (similarity 0.95)
• Horkheimer’s materialism rested on happiness as an unjustified demand resolvable through planning (similarity 0.95)
• Materialism was defined by its problem-focus on suffering, injustice, and practice (similarity 0.87)
• Horkheimer grounded ethics in desire as a fact needing no justification (similarity 0.80)
• Horkheimer treated the dialectic of history as a hypothesis, not a structural plan (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer’s materialism rested on happiness as an unjustified demand resolvable through planning #expands (0.90) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 545
• Horkheimer’s materialism defined itself against happiness as illusory and toward social transformation #contradicts (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 544