Max Horkheimer
Source: Wikipedia: Max Horkheimer
Philosophy & Thought • Historical Archive • 🇩🇪 German Empire • 0 views

Max Horkheimer 🇩🇪

Max Horkheimer
["Philosopher", "Sociologist", "Director of the Frankfurt School"]
Born Feb 14, 1895 🇩🇪 Stuttgart, German Empire
Passed Away Jul 07, 1973 Nuremberg, West Germany
Lifespan 78 years old
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"The true function of philosophy was always to protest against the tyranny of reality."

Archival Overview

German philosopher and sociologist who directed the Institute for Social Research (Frankfurt School), formulated Critical Theory, and co-authored Dialectic of Enlightenment with Theodor Adorno.

Biographical Record

Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) became director of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt in 1930, assembling a dazzling circle that included Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and Walter Benjamin. In his 1937 essay 'Traditional and Critical Theory', he defined Critical Theory as interdisciplinary research aimed at liberating human beings from enslaving circumstances.

In exile in New York and California, he co-authored 'Dialectic of Enlightenment' and published 'Eclipse of Reason' (1947), tracing the collapse of objective philosophical reason into pragmatic instrumental utility. He returned to Frankfurt in 1949, serving as university rector.

Key Life Milestones

1937

Traditional and Critical Theory

Formulated the foundational manifesto of Critical Theory distinguishing emancipatory thought from bourgeois positivism.

1947

Eclipse of Reason

Published his critique of subjective instrumental reason in modern industrial society.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Jewish Cemetery Bern (Bremgarten)
Bern, Switzerland
GPS: 46.9536, 7.4208
View on Memory Atlas
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