Disillusion and the Emergence of a Nietzschean Streak

Abstract

In the previous chapter I set out the basic ambitions of early Critical Theory as revealed in Max Horkheimer’s inaugural address. His hope was to develop a dialectical theory that moved back and forth between the wider demands of capitalist development and the development of different forms of action at the level of social agency or praxis. I drew attention to an ambiguity in Critical Theory’s (inherited) account of praxis, which had the aim of recognising the importance of social action, but still tended to see it as something passive and derived from the demands of capitalism.