The Institute’s self-proclaimed empirical flexibility never touched its core convictions about historical progress.
Evidence
The writers all seemed to feel themselves to be borne along by the train of history, just as Grünberg had, in his inaugural lecture at the opening of the Institute in 1924. And, as with Grünberg, it seemed that for them, too, their basic convictions were only adjusted to account for delays in progress, and that none of these convictions could be affected by the undogmatic, hypothetical, empirically testable character of the theory that was emphasized by Lowenthal just as much as by Horkheimer. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 482
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: A striking observation: the group’s celebrated undogmatic empiricism functioned only as an adjustment mechanism on the margins, never as a check on foundational beliefs.
- XREF: connects to: The Institute’s flagship study juxtaposed vast empirical material with theory that never engaged it — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 605
Broader Connections
- The Institute’s flagship study juxtaposed vast empirical material with theory that never engaged it
#corroborates(0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 605