Abstract

In one of his last essays Horkheimer writes: “Schopenhauer's pessimistic doctrine is a consolation.” To grasp the meaning of this apparent resignation one must recall the fate of the Frankfurt School. Faced with Soviet Marxism and the “impotence of the workers against the aggressive mechanisms of authoritarian states,” or the disappearance of the working class as defined by Marx, from the 1930s Critical Theory undertook to reconsider a theory of emancipation. Despite the theoretical retreat to which it was forced, Critical Theory sought to determine where Marxist critique could be anchored in order to grasp the positive through its negativity.