Mannheim's Critical Theory?: Reflections on the Relationship between Max Horkheimer and Karl Mannheim
15 Pages Posted: 27 Sep 2013
Date Written: April 30, 2010
Abstract
The thinkers of the Frankfurt School, a group centered around the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, are also best known for their contemporaneous analyses of social phenomena which also emphasized the significance of historical analysis. Perhaps the most acclaimed member of the Frankfurt School is the social philosopher Max Horkheimer, who was appointed its director in 1930 and was responsible for hiring many of its most famous members, including Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin. Although Horkheimer was one of the advance reviewers of the German edition of Ideology and Utopia and was later known to have had a somewhat stormy relationship with Mannheim, there is a relative poverty of literature on the relationship of Horkheimer’s ‘critical theory’ to Mannheim’s ‘sociology of knowledge.’ In this paper, I will examine both Horkheimer and Mannheim’s methods of sociological study in some detail before going on to explore the theoretical similarities and differences of the two ideas. I will highlight to what degree Mannheim’s schema can be considered a ‘critical theory’ in Horkheimer’s sense of the term, arguing that although the two theories do have remarkable similarities, Mannheim’s falls short of the ‘critical’ mark established by Horkheimer. Despite this, I will conclude that in doing so, Mannheim’s theory actually lights the way for a more constructive and responsible politics than does Horkheimer’s. Mannheim’s willingness to submit his own thought to thorough examination leads him to a political solution that avoids the Marxist mystification that characterizes the critical theory espoused by Horkheimer.
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