Horkheimer sought to fuse European critical theory with American empirical methods

Evidence

The team in Berkeley is certainly unique. The leader of the group is a gentile professor of psychology. The two assistants are exceptionally well-trained psychologists with a good knowledge of statistical and sociological methods. If at any time I go to San Francisco in order to organize with these friends an experimental series on a larger basis, we shall be able to publish a book on the analysis and the measurement of antisemitism. Such a book would be a new approach, not only with regard to our specific problem, but to the study of social phenomena in general. It would constitute what we propagated in our first pamphlets after our arrival in this country: the bringing together of certain European concepts with American methods. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1520

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the Institute’s self-conceived mission in America: European concepts grafted onto American empirical methodology.
• ADDENDUM: This Asian-institution research mission mirrors the grafting metaphor central to the trees-as-infrastructure article.
• XREF: Connects to the Institute’s general Americanization of critical theory discussed across Adorno/Horkheimer historiography. — connects to: Horkheimer steered the Institute toward empirical research while retaining theoretical control — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1495; Horkheimer’s critical theory aimed to combine factual knowledge with normative urgency — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 199; Late Horkheimer embraced anti-Communist and pro-American rhetoric — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 1726 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer’s critical theory aimed to combine factual knowledge with normative urgency #corroborates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 199
• Late Horkheimer embraced anti-Communist and pro-American rhetoric #qualifies (0.72) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 1726