“The endeavor of scientific research to see events in their more general connection in order to determine their laws, is a legitimate and useful occupation. Any protest against such efforts, in the name of freefom from restrictive conditions, would be fruitless if science did not naïvely identify the abstractions called rules and laws with the actually efficacious forces, and confuse the probability that B will follow A with the actual effort make B follow A.” IfsWould BeLawOrderNamesForceEffortConditionsEventsResearchConnectionsDetermineProtestOccupationEndeavorProbabilityAbstractionScientific Research Author:Max Horkheimer
“Whoever desires to live among men has to obey their laws this is what the secular morality of Western civilization comes down to. ... Rationality in the form of such obedience swallows up everything, even the freedom to think.” ThinkingMenFormLawDesireMoralityCivilizationWesternObedienceSecularRationalityWestern CivilizationDesire To Live Book:Zeitschrift Fur Sozialforschung Source: Zeitschrift Fur Sozialforschung
“Calvin's theocentric irrationalism eventually revealed itself as the cunning to technocratic reason which had to shape its human material. Misery and the poor laws did not suffice to drive men into the workshops of the early capitalistic era. The new spirit helped to supplement external pressures with a concern for wife and child to which the moral autonomy of the introverted subject in reality was tantamount.” MenHumansChildrenReasonRealityLawSpiritPoorMoralWifeSubjectsMaterialsShapesConcernPressureMiseryErasAutonomyCunningWorkshopsSupplementsIntroverted Author:Max Horkheimer
“The pathfinders of modern thought did not derive what is good from the law. ... Their role in history was not that of adapting their words and actions to the text of old documents or generally accepted doctrines: they themselves created the documents and brought about the acceptance of their doctrines.” ActionLawRolesModernAcceptanceAcceptedDoctrineDocumentsAdaptingWords And Actions Book:Eclipse of Reason Source: Eclipse of Reason
