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Quote by Max Horkheimer

“With the abolition of otium and of the ego no aloof thinking is left. ... Without otium philosophical thought is impossible, cannot be conceived or understood.”

Quote by Max Horkheimer

Book:Zeitschrift Fur Sozialforschung

Work

Zeitschrift Fur Sozialforschung

Zeitschrift Fur Sozialforschung is a renowned academic journal that publishes articles and studies on various aspects of social research. It covers a wide range of topics within the field, including social theory, methodology, and empirical research findings. more

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 world is so possessed by the power of what is and the efforts of adjustment to it, that the adolescent's rebellion, which once fought the father because his practices contradicted his own ideology, can no longer crop up. ... Psychologically, the father is ... replaced by the world of things.”

World Father Effort Practice Ideology Rebellion Possessed Replaced Crops Adjustment

Author:Max Horkheimer

“If the subjectivist view hold true, thinking cannot be of any help in determining the desirability of any goal in itself. The acceptability of ideals, the criteria for our actions and beliefs, the leading principles of ethics and politics, all our ultimate decisions are made to depend upon factors other than reason. They are supposed to be matters of choice and predilection, and it has become meaningless to speak of truth in making practical, moral or esthetic decisions.”

“Reason has never really directed social reality, but now reason has been so thoroughly purged of any specific trend or preference that it has finally renounced even the task of passing judgment on man's actions and way of life. Reason has turned them over for ultimate sanction to the conflicting interests to which our world actually seems abandoned.”

Men World Way Has Beens Reason Reality Seems Action Social Interest Judgment Tasks Ultimate Passing Passings Our World Trends Abandoned Preference Sanctions Passing Judgment

Book:Eclipse of Reason

Source: Eclipse of Reason

“In most cases, to be reasonable means not to be obstinate, which in turn points to conformity with reality as it is. The principle of adjustment is taken for granted. When the idea of reason was conceived, it was intended to achieve more than the mere regulation of the relation between means and ends: it was regarded as the instrument for understanding the ends, for determining them.”

Source: Eclipse of Reason

“Subjective reason ... is inclined to abandon the fight with religion by setting up two different brackets, one for science and philosophy, and one for institutionalized mythology, thus recognizing both of them. For the philosophy of objective reason there is no such way out. Since it hold to the concept of objective truth, it must take a positive or a negative stand with regard to the content of established religion.”

Source: Eclipse of Reason

“Age merely shows what children we remain.”

Children Shows Age Literature

Book:Faust

Source: Faust

“Spinoza , for example, thought that insight into the essence of reality, into the harmonious structure of the eternal universe, necessarily awakens love for this universe. For him, ethical conduct is entirely determined by such insight into nature, just as our devotion to a person may be determined by insight into his greatness or genius. Fears and petty passions, alien to the great love of the universe, which is logos itself, will vanish, according to Spinoza, once our understanding of reality is deep enough.”

Source: Eclipse of Reason

“Reason as an organ for perceiving the true nature of reality and determining the guiding principles of our lives has come to be regarded as obsolete.”

Reason Reality Principles Our Lives Organs Obsolete True Nature Guiding Principles

Book:Eclipse of Reason

Source: Eclipse of Reason

“The quality of the human that precludes identifying the individual with the class is 'metaphysical' and has no place in empiricist epistemology. The pigeon hole into which a man is shoved circumscribes his fate.”

Men Humans Individual Quality Class Fate Holes Metaphysical Identifying Pigeons Epistemology

Author:Max Horkheimer

“As soon as a thought or word becomes a tool, one can dispense with actually 'thinking' it, that is, with going through the logical acts involved in verbal formulation of it. As has been pointed out, often and correctly, the advantage of mathematics - the model of all neo-positivistic thinking - lies in just this 'intellectual economy.' Complicated logical operations are carried out without actual performance of the intellectual acts upon which the mathematical and logical symbols are based. ... Reason ... becomes a fetish, a magic entity that is accepted rather than intellectually experienced.”