The Institut’s alienation from all left factions drove its turn to pure theory

Evidence

It is, however, at least arguable that Critical Theory would have been enriched if the members of the Institut had been more intimately involved in practical politics. The example of Lukacs, to be sure, suggests that there were pitfalls involved in too close an attachment to one faction or another. But on the other side of the ledger is the case of the Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, whose political experience before his imprisonment by Mussolini in 1926 always served to give his theorizing a concrete quality, which the Frankfurt School’s work sometimes lacked. … After the failure of the German revolution, its members, at least those around Horkheimer, were alienated from all political factions on the left. The SPD was treated with the scorn its craven capitulation before the status quo deserved — in fact, one might argue that the SPD’s betrayal of the working class colored the Frankfurt School’s subsequent distrust of all “moderate” solutions. The KPD was equally anathema, for its transparent dependence on Moscow and its theoretical bankruptcy. … The result was that the Frankfurt School chose the purity of its theory over the affiliation that a concrete attempt to realize it would have required. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 172

Categorization

• XREF: The Gramsci vs. Frankfurt School contrast parallels the Milgrom material on how concrete practice disciplines theory; also echoes the Achebe/Naqvi theme of ideological purity’s cost. — connects to: The proletariat’s integration forced critical theory into transcendent critique — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 190; Changed historical conditions forced critical theory from immanent to transcendent critique — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 190
• DEEPTHINKING: The passage ties an entire tradition’s theoretical character to a single political trauma (SPD betrayal) — a causal claim about how political disillusionment shapes intellectual commitments.

Broader Connections

• The proletariat’s integration forced critical theory into transcendent critique #corroborates (0.88) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 190
• Changed historical conditions forced critical theory from immanent to transcendent critique #corroborates (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 190