Critical Theory as a Reply to Heidegger, Scheler, and the Frankfurt Heideggerians

Abstract

This chapter examines Martin Heidegger's role in Max Horkheimer's programmatic formulations of critical theory in the early 1930s as the director of the Institute for Social Research. It highlights Horkheimer's sublation of philosophy into multidisciplinary social criticism that opened a third post-metaphysical path along Heidegger's philosophical hermeneutics and analytical philosophy. It also refers to Jürgen Habermas, who judges Horkheimer's early critical theory as an original, anti-Heideggerian response to the end of metaphysics. The chapter investigates Horkheimer's critical theory as an alternative to the hegemonic teachings of Heidegger and Max Scheler as well as to the neo-metaphysical doctrines of the Frankfurt Heideggerians. It reviews Horkheimer's debates in the Frankfurt discussion with Kurt Riezler and Paul Tillich.