Abstract

The essay analyzes the transformation of the metaphor »real experiment« (Realexperiment) as part of a critical theory of modernity into an instrument for empirical research and pragmatic problem solving. This transformation has come at a cost. I argue that in the wake of its systematization the concept of the real experiment has lost the ability to engage with certain types of problems. Given this detrimental shift, it becomes all the more important to rediscover the term’s older layers of meaning and how they might be useful in confronting current experiences of how history tends towards autonomization.