Horkheimer tied fragmented knowledge to the monopolistic-anarchic structure of the global economy.

Evidence

A global economic structure both monopolistic and anarchic, he argued, had promoted a confused state of knowledge. Only by overcoming the fetishistic grounding of scientific knowledge in pure consciousness, and by recognizing the concrete historical circumstances that conditioned all thought, could the present crisis be surmounted. … Science must not ignore its own social role, for only by becoming conscious of its function in the present critical situation could it contribute to the forces that would bring about the necessary changes. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 151

Categorization

• XREF: Foreshadows Horkheimer’s later critique of instrumental reason in Eclipse of Reason and the whole research program of Critical Theory. — connects to: Mechanized knowledge creates monopolies that endanger freedom of thought — Harold Innis, The Bias of Communication, 1123; Fields of knowledge are constrained by society, culture, and institutional power — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 505

Broader Connections

• Mechanized knowledge creates monopolies that endanger freedom of thought #expands (0.85) — Harold Innis, The Bias of Communication, 1123
• Fields of knowledge are constrained by society, culture, and institutional power #expands (0.80) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 505