Horkheimer read Habermas’s practical philosophy as an invitation to dictatorship.

Evidence

Habermas’s plea for the replacement of autonomous philosophy by a practical philosophy of history whose aim would be to transform the philosophy of history into critical and practical activity was, in Horkheimer’s view, playing into the hands of dictatorship and the destruction of the last remnants of civilization. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 582

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the philosophical fault line inside the Institute: autonomous philosophy versus a practical philosophy of history aimed at transformative critique.
• XREF: Resonates with Horkheimer and Adorno’s later rejection of orthodox Marxist ‘profession’ as masochistic — the same retreat from praxis-facing theory. — connects to: Habermas came to accept limited rule-breaking as legitimate for politicizing the public sphere — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2649
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Habermas came to accept limited rule-breaking as legitimate for politicizing the public sphere — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2649