Max Horkheimer
Max Horkheimer was a prominent German philosopher and sociologist, born in Stuttgart to Jewish parents. Initially expected to take over his father's factory, his experiences in World War I shifted his focus toward academia, leading him to study economics, psychology, and philosophy. Appointed as a professor of social philosophy at the University of Frankfurt in 1930, he quickly became the director of the Institute for Social Research, a key institution in the development of critical theory. Horkheimer collaborated with influential thinkers like Herbert Marcuse and Theodor W. Adorno, and he played a crucial role in unifying the diverse ideas of the Frankfurt School.
His work emphasized the synthesis of philosophy, social science, and cultural critique, aiming to transform society through consciousness rather than political activism. Horkheimer's perspective became increasingly pessimistic following his exile from Nazi Germany, as he critiqued the Enlightenment's reliance on situational rationality, warning that it could lead to totalitarianism. His notable writings, including "Eclipse of Reason" and "Dialectic of Enlightenment," reflect his call for self-reflection and the examination of social norms. Horkheimer returned to Frankfurt in 1949, serving as rector of the university until his retirement. He passed away in Nuremberg in 1973, leaving a lasting impact on social theory and philosophy.
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Max Horkheimer
Philosopher
- Born: February 14, 1895
- Birthplace: Stuttgart, Germany
- Died: July 7, 1973
- Place of death: Nuremberg, Germany
Biography
Max Horkheimer was born in Stuttgart, Germany, the son of Jewish parents. His parents intended him to make his career in his father Moses’s factory, but after he served in World War I, his interest in economics, psychology, and philosophy led him to university study. He was appointed professor of social philosophy in 1930 at the University of Frankfurt. Less than a year later, he was elected director of the Institute for Social Research, a position he held until 1958. He joined Herbert Marcuse and Erich Fromm as founding members, and also formed a lifelong friendship with Theodor W. Adorno. In 1931, he began editing the new Journal for Social Research, the organ of the Institute.
Although not as prolific a writer as others associated with the Institute, Horkheimer took responsibility for bringing cohesion to the many diverse and talented thinkers of the Frankfurt School. As its overseer and guiding spirit, he composed a programmatic essay in 1937 in which he termed the school’s synthesis of philosophy, science, and social study “critical theory.” The critical theorists combined economic analysis with cultural, philosophical, and aesthetic issues in an attempt to develop a comprehensive social theory. As a neo-Marxist, or Western Marxist, Horkheimer was not concerned with a labor movement or political activism, but rather the transformation of society through a change of consciousness.
In 1933, pressure from the Nazi government forced Horkheimer to Switzerland then to the United States, where Columbia University agreed to host the Institute and its journal while Horkheimer was in exile. In 1940, he became a U.S. citizen and moved to Berkeley, California, where he wrote Eclipse of Reason (1947) and collaborated with Adorno on the Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947). In these works, his outlook seemed more pessimistic than in his earlier work. Abandoning the traditional Marxian hope for a proletarian utopia, Horkheimer urged individuals to assert their dignity by critically examining accepted social norms and refusing to conform to them. At the same time, he urged self-criticism as well, for the “eclipse of reason” was due to an increasing reliance on subjective and situational uses of reason and an abandonment of universal rationality (and morality). The Nazis had proven that the logical end of situational (or functional) rationality was totalitarianism. Thus, Horkheimer and Adorno argued that the Enlightenment had within it the seeds of its own destruction and had to be tempered with self-reflexive critiques.
In 1949, Horkheimer returned to the University of Frankfurt and reopened the Institute. From 1951 to 1953, he served as rector of the university. He returned to the United States in 1954 to lecture, and he retired the following year. In 1969, both his friend Adorno and his wife of forty-three years, Rosa Riekher, died. Horkheimer died in Nuremberg in 1973.