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Quote by Max Horkheimer

“When even the dictators of today appeal to reason, they mean that they possess the most tanks. They were rational enough to build them; others should be rational enough to yield to them.”

Quote by Max Horkheimer

Author

German philosopher and sociologist, one of the founders of the Frankfurt School. Max Horkheimer was born on February 14, 1895, and died on July 7, 1973. He had a profound influence on philosophy, sociology, and critical theory. more

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“The complexity of the connection between the world of perception and the world of physics does not preclude that such a connection can be shown to exist at any time.”

World Doe Perception Connections Physics Complexity

Book:Critical Theory: Selected Essays

Source: Critical Theory: Selected Essays

“The disparagement of empirical evidence in favor of a metaphysical world of illusion has its origin in the conflicy between the emancipated individual of bourgeois society and his fate within that society.”

World Individual Fate Illusion Evidence Favors Metaphysical Bourgeois Empirical Evidence

Book:Critical Theory: Selected Essays

Source: Critical Theory: Selected Essays

“Notwithstanding their attacks on the basic conception of rationalism, on synthetic a priori judgments, that is, material propositions that cannot be contradicted by any experience, the empiricist posits the forms of being as constant.”

Form Materials Judgment Constant Conception Propositions Rationalism Synthetic

Author:Max Horkheimer

“The facts which our senses present to us are socially performed in two ways: through the historical character of the object perceived and through the historical character of the perceiving organ. Both are not simply natural; they are shaped by human activity, and yet the individual perceives himself as receptive and passive in the act of perception.”

Way Humans Two Character Facts Individual Natural Objects Activity Perception Historical Senses Perceive Organs Passive Two Ways Receptive Human Activity

Book:Critical Theory: Selected Essays

Source: Critical Theory: Selected Essays

“Whoever is not prepared to talk about capitalism should also remain silent about fascism.”

Should Political Silence Capitalism Prepared Silent Fascism Political Ideology

Author:Max Horkheimer

“The Revolution won't happen with guns, rather it will happen incrementally, year by year, generation by generation. We will gradually infiltrate their educational institutions and their political offices, transforming them slowly into Marxist entities as we move towards universal egalitarianism.”

“During long periods of history, the mode of human sense perception changes with humanity’s entire mode of existence. The manner in which human sense perception is organized, the medium in which it is accomplished, is determined not only by nature but by historical circumstances as well”

Humans Wells Long Humanity Existence Periods Circumstances Perception Historical Determined Mediums Organized Accomplished Sense Perception

Book:Illuminations

Source: Illuminations

“Only for the sake of the hopeless ones have we been given hope.”

Given Sake Hopeless

Author:Walter Benjamin

“There was the pedestrian who wedged himself into the crowd, but there was also the flneur who demanded elbow room and was unwilling to forego the life of the gentleman of leisure. His leisurely appearance as a personality is his protest against the division of labour which makes people into specialists. it was also his protest against their industriousness. Around 1840 it was briefly fashionable to take turtles for a walk in the arcades. the flneurs liked to have the turtles set the pace for them.”

People Walks Rooms Personality Crowds Appearance Gentleman Labour Protest Division Pace Leisure Fashionable Unwilling Specialists Elbows Turtles Pedestrians Arcades

Author:Walter Benjamin

“If mythic violence is lawmaking, divine violence is law-destroying; if the former sets boundaries, the latter boundlessly destroys them; if mythic violence brings at once guilt and retribution, divine power only expiates; if the former threatens, the latter strikes; if the former is bloody, the latter is lethal without spilling blood”

Ifs Law Violence Blood Divine Guilt Strikes Boundaries Former Latter Destroying Bloody Retribution Divine Power Spilling

Book:Selected Writings: 1913-1926

Source: Selected Writings: 1913-1926