Weber and the Frankfurt School

[Sam D Fassbinder]

On Tue, 7 Feb 1995, Simon Hopper wrote:

> Hello, I am a research postgraduate student at Cardiff. My research
> focuses on the theorization of reason and rationality in Weber and
> the classical Frankfurt School (i.e. Adorno, Horkheimer and Marcuse).
> Apart from the essay by Marcuse on Industrialization and Capitalism,
> a quick mention of Weber in Horkheimer's Eclipse of Reason, and also
> in Adorno's Negative Dialectics I have not had much luck on finding
> much discussion of Weber by these three authors.  Does anyone on this
> list know of any other places in Adorno, Horkheimer and Marcuse's work
> where they discuss Weber? I will be most grateful for any information
> provided.
> I will be away for the rest of this week so unfortunately I cannot
> reply immediately to any questions you may have. Thanks in advance,
> Simon Hopper (ssosh1@cf.ac.uk)

My first response: well that may be true -- I guess the question is begged by
the equivalence Habermas found between Horkheimer (Adorno, Lukacs, Weber too)
and Weber which became a motif for the analysis of instrumental reason in the
last half of volume 1 of THEORY OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTION.  So it would be
worthwhile to find out -- I don't really read German myself so the volumes of
"gesammelte schriften" are somewhat opaque.....good luck.....

Samuel Day Fassbinder
172 E Duncan St., Apt. D
Columbus OH 43202
sfassbin@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu