Immanent critique cannot function without some measure of transcendence.

Evidence

Adorno’s view was that the economic and social causes of anti-Semitism were demonstrated by the psyche of the anti-Semite; a consistent and thorough psychological study of the anti-Semite would lead to the `cultural anthropology’ of anti-Semitism. But the same problem arose here as with the concept always defended by Adorno: the idea of an immanent critique which could not do without a dash of transcendence. In the same way, an analysis of objective factors through an in-depth analysis of subjective factors could not do without basic knowledge of the objective factors. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 453

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that immanent critique secretly requires a transcendent standard cuts against the whole program and takes sustained unpacking.
• XREF: Connects to Adorno’s later debates over the standpoint of the critique of instrumental reason and to Habermas’s immanent reconstruction project.