The Frankfurt School’s Marxism was built on earlier idealist and subjectivist philosophical training.

Evidence

In their attempt to achieve a new perspective that might make the new situation intelligible, in a framework that was still fundamentally Marxist, the members of the Frankfurt School were fortunate in having had philosophical training outside the Marxist tradition. Like other twentieth-century contributors to the revitalization of Marxism - Lukacs, Gramsci, Bloch, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty - they were influenced at an early stage in their careers by more subjectivist, even idealist philosophies. … Horkheimer, who set the tone for all of the Institut’s work, had been interested in Schopenhauer and Kant before becoming fascinated with Hegel and Marx. His expression of interest in Schopenhauer in the 196o’s, contrary to what is often assumed, was thus a return to an early love, rather than an apostasy from a life-long Hegelianized Marxism. In fact the first book in philosophy Horkheimer actually read was Schopenhauer’s Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life, which Pollock gave him when they were studying French together in Brussels before the war. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 193

Categorization

• XREF: The subjectivist-neoMarxist axis here mirrors the read of Lukacs, Gramsci, and Western Marxism that Jay charts across the whole book. — connects to: Marxism historicizes the Hegelian idea across both structure and superstructure. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1592; German idealism first introduced the creativity of thought into philosophy — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1242

Broader Connections

• German idealism first introduced the creativity of thought into philosophy #corroborates (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1242
• Marxism historicizes the Hegelian idea across both structure and superstructure. #complicates (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1592