The Mannesmann study abandoned Critical Theory for pure quantitative empiricism

Evidence

What emerged from the study, however, was something different: a quantitative analysis of the interviews, complemented by superficial analysis of the group discussion material. The third volume of `Frankfurt Contributions to Sociology’ was therefore a study which differed from all previous publications by the Institute of Social Research: it was an impressively professional, and purely quantitative, questionnaire analysis. Its professionalism was due to the Institute’s new associate, Ludwig von Friedeburg, who probably suited Horkheimer precisely because he seemed to him to be a pure empiricist who had nothing to do with Critical Theory. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2090

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects to the ongoing Frankfurt School debate over positivism versus Critical Theory—dovetails with Adorno’s positivism dispute and the Institute’s methodological identity crisis. — connects to: Pure text-based qualitative analysis collapses when it lacks resistance from wider evidence — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1958
• DEFINE: Illustrates what ‘pure empiricism’ without Critical Theory meant in practice at the Institute—a useful concrete contrast case for the theoretical distinction.