MAX HORKHEIMER: BIOGRAPHY, CRITICAL THEORY, CONTRIBUTIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Max Horkheimer (1895 -1973) was one of the philosophers and sociologists who founded the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. The thought of the so-called Frankfurt School had a great influence on the European left and in the so-called French May of 1968.

Horkheimer was also a professor of philosophy and obtained the chair of social philosophy at the University of Frankfurt. Due to his dual status as a Jew and a Marxist (or neo-Marxist), he went into exile when the Nazis came to power. During that period and until the end of World War II, he lived in the United States; There he continued developing his philosophical works.

Max Horkheimer, located on the right

The main contribution of Horkheimer and the rest of the members of the Frankfurt School was critical theory. This made a radical critique of the society of the time, of capitalism and the system of domination that characterized it according to these thinkers.

Horkheimer's work is heavily influenced by the events he experienced, especially the oppressive state created by the Nazis. From the 1950s on, he also criticized the system installed in the Soviet Union and carried out a rereading of Marxism.

Biography of Max Horkheimer

Early age

Max Horkheimer was born on February 14, 1895 in Stuttgart, Germany, into a well-off family. His father was an industrialist dedicated to the manufacture of textiles and forced him to leave school at the age of 16 to work with him.

From an early age he showed his passion for philosophy and a trip to Paris reaffirmed his vocation. There he read Schopenhauer, Hegel and Marx, influences that marked his future works.

The First World War interrupted his life and he had to enlist in 1916 in the German army to fight in the conflict.

Post-war studies

When the war ended, Max decided to resume his studies and not go back to his father's factory. He opted for a career in Philosophy and Psychology. He passed through the universities of Munich, Freiburg and Frankfurt, where he met Theodor Adorno, with whom he collaborated on many of his works.

His doctoral thesis dealt with the antinomy of teleological judgment. He presented it in 1922 and its director was Hans Cornelius.

Frankfurt Institute for Social Research

As early as 1930, Horkheimer began working as a professor of Philosophy. This was joined by the position of director of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt.

This institution began to carry out various studies on the society of its time, late capitalist, and how a system of social domination had been created.

The coming to power of the Nazi party caused him to go into exile. After a brief stay in Switzerland, he ended up residing in the United States in 1934.

In her host country she worked at Columbia University, first at its headquarters in New York and later at Los Angeles. During that period she received American citizenship.

It was in Los Angeles that he published Dialectic of the Enlightenment, a book written in collaboration with Adorno.

Return to germany

The end of the war allowed him to return to Germany. In 1949 she settled again in Frankfurt, where she recovered the activity of the Institute that had been closed by the Nazis. He was also appointed rector of the city's University, a position he held between 1951 and 1953.

Upon leaving that position, he continued with his teaching work in the same educational center, simultaneously with the classes he taught at the University of Chicago. Horkheimer won the Goethe Prize in 1955 and in 1960 the city of Frankfurt made him an honorary citizen.

Death

Horkheimer's activity was much less during his later years. He left the direction of the Institute, a position occupied by his friend Adorno. The death of his wife greatly affected his health and he hardly appeared in public.

Max Horkheimer died on July 7, 1973 in the German city of Nuremberg at the age of 78.

Critical theory

The first appearance of critical theory was in Max Horkheimer's own book Traditional Theory and Critical Theory. The work was published in 1937.

This theory, like all the philosophical production of the Frankfurt School, has a clear Marxist influence. Of course, it is a Marxism that they themselves considered heterodox, with variations on the thought of Marx.

The goal they aimed at with this critical theory was to help improve the world. For this it was necessary to discover the social origins of knowledge and, ultimately, to achieve that the human being emancipated.

For Horkheimer, only totally changing that traditional way of theorizing, as well as the form of social practice, could make everything evolve. It was a theory that confronted the traditional one, which used to separate the thought from the subject.

Traditional theory vs. critical theory

Despite starting from Marxism, critical theory tries to overcome it, it tries to update what Marx proposed. Against the traditional theory, Horkheimer defends that knowledge not only reproduces the objective data of reality, but is also essential for its formation.

His critical theory does not separate the subject who contemplates reality from it, but rather points out that the two are totally related.

Contributions of Max Horkheimer

Facing positivism

Critical theory faces positivism when facing the study of reality. Horkheimer wrote about it during his stay in the United States, in a communication research in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation, His position wanted the concept of reason to expand; in this way, it would cease to be linked to empiricist practice. For the German philosopher, companies and institutions adopt an empirical point of view that does not pay attention to social issues, focusing only on consumption.

Facing the Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was also the object of study by Horkheimer and Adorno. For them, this movement made the human being face the different in a negative way, causing conflicts.

The society that emerged from the Enlightenment was homogeneous, with no room for difference. Therefore, these authors concluded that the reason that the Enlightenment presumed was used in a destructive and non-liberating way. For them he only ended certain myths, mainly religious, but replaced them with his own.

According to experts, this criticism was closely related to what was happening in Nazi Germany. Horkheimer used as an example the myth of the superior race as one of those that in his country had replaced the ancient myths.

Review of Marxism

Despite the Marxist basis of the Frankfurt School, after World War II they made several criticisms of this philosophy.

For Horkheimer, Marx had erred in thinking that impoverished workers were going to end capitalism. It had managed to raise the standard of living of the workers, even at the cost of impoverishing the inhabitants of other countries.

In his critical theory Horkheimer ventured that the world was heading for a bureaucratized society with all aspects regulated and, as such, almost totalitarian.

On the other hand, he denounced revolutionary violence, convinced that this was not the way to change reality.

Cultural industry

Nor was the cultural industry left out of criticism. For Horkheimer the media, the cinema and, in general, the whole industry, were part of the system.

In fact, it was a fundamental tool so that nothing would change, since it issued messages that reaffirmed the benefits of the current social order.

Works by Max Horkheimer

Observations on science and the crisis

In this book, Horkheimer analyzes the role of science as an essential element for the system.

History and Psychology

The author develops the idea of ​​the need of the human being to belong to something, be it a nation or an ideological group.

Dialectic of Enlightenment

Joint work between Horkheimer and Adorno. In this appears the criticism of reason and Enlightenment.

Traditional theory and critical theory

Also written in collaboration with Adorno. The concept of critical theory appears for the first time.

Observations on Philosophical Anthropology

It deals with how anthropology has become a science that justifies the maintenance of current structures, justifying it with tradition.

References

1. Biography and Lives. Max Horkheimer. Obtained from biografiasyvidas.com
2. Various. Lexicon of politics. Recovered from books.google.es
3. Martinez, Leonardo. Critical Theory Foundation Strategies: Horkheimer, Adorno and Habermas. Retrieved from revistapensar.org
4. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Max Horkheimer. Retrieved from plato.stanford.edu
5. Corradetti, Claudio. The Frankfurt School and Critical Theory. Retrieved from iep.utm.edu
6. Wolin, Richard. Max Horkheimer. Retrieved from britannica.com
7. Schmidt, Alfred. On Max Horkheimer: New Perspectives. Recovered from books.google.es
8. Stirk, Peter MR Max Horkheimer: A New Interpretation. Recovered from books.google.es