Max Horkheimer y el proyecto de una dialéctica no cerrada

Abstract

The essays Horkheimer published in the Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung in the 1930s have a programmatic character regarding the further development of a theoretical conception that would take up the study of social reality with a view to a transformative goal. In these texts Horkheimer points to the need for a reformulation of the Hegelian dialectic in order to purify it of what he sees as an idealist anchorage. He understands that the Hegelian method cannot be simply adopted by materialism remaining unchanged from the way it was initially conceived. This paper examines Horkheimer’s critique of the Hegelian method in order to illuminate some central aspects of his theoretical conception. We argue that through an analysis of Horkheimer’s reformulation a decisive aspect of his stance towards the relation between theory and praxis can be revealed.