Horkheimer pursued total social analysis while Adorno read redemptive meaning from fragments.
Evidence
Horkheimer was a materialist social theorist, attempting, through a philosophically initiated interdisciplinary analysis of society as a whole, to meet the demand for happiness asserted by mortal human beings who depend on the here and now. Adorno was an interpretative materialist who, by means of `constructive interpretation’ and elucidation of what was small, fragmentary, accidental and infused with idealism, aimed to liberate dialectically the elements which would be capable of rescuing these phenomena and producing a better form of rationality. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 184
Categorization
- DEFINE: Distinguishes ‘materialist social theorist’ from ‘interpretative materialist’ as two divergent modes of Frankfurt materialism.
- XREF: Echoes the earlier claim that Adorno defined materialism as reorienting minute details rather than economic analysis. — connects to: Adorno supplied theoretical fireworks; Horkheimer selectively applied them.; Horkheimer and Adorno each deployed Hegelian dialectics toward different ends — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 767; Horkheimer and Adorno’s collaboration fused two distinct materialist methodologies — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 662 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Horkheimer and Adorno each deployed Hegelian dialectics toward different ends
#expands(0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 767 - Horkheimer and Adorno’s collaboration fused two distinct materialist methodologies
#expands(0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 662 - Horkheimer and Adorno’s collaboration required assimilating their differing materialisms.
#expands(0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 662