Traditional theory pursues pure knowledge and technical mastery, not praxis

Evidence

The objective of traditional theory, he asserted, had always been the formulation of general, internally consistent principles describing the world. This had been true whether they were generated deductively, as in Cartesian theory, inductively, as in the work of John Stuart Mill, or phenomenologically, as in Husserl’s philosophy. Even Anglo-Saxon science with its stress on empiricism and verification sought general propositions to test. The goal of traditional research had been pure knowledge, rather than action. If it pointed in the direction of activity, as in the case of Baconian science, its goal was technological mastery of the world, which was very different from praxis. At all times, traditional theory maintained a strict separation of thought and action. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 298

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the traditional/critical theory distinction central to Horkheimer’s 1937 essay.
• XREF: The traditional-criticial theory dichotomy grounds much later critical theory and cultural critique, including Habermas’s knowledge-constitutive interests. — connects to: Theory is contested conjunctural knowledge, not will to truth; Theory develops unevenly, paced by practical necessities rather than its own logic; Concepts are tools for dominating nature, not for understanding it — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 52

Broader Connections

• Theory is contested conjunctural knowledge, not will to truth #contradicts (0.85)
• Concepts are tools for dominating nature, not for understanding it #expands (0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 52
• Theory develops unevenly, paced by practical necessities rather than its own logic #complicates (0.70)