Max Horkheimer

Max Horkheimer (1895-1973) was a leader of the 'Frankfurt School, ' a group of philosophers and social scientists associated with the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. Horkheimer was the director of the Institute and Professor of Social Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt from 1930-1933, and again from 1949-1958. In between those periods he would lead the Institute in exile, primarily in America. As a philosopher he is best known for his work during the 1940s, including...See more

Max Horkheimer (1895-1973) was a leader of the 'Frankfurt School, ' a group of philosophers and social scientists associated with the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. Horkheimer was the director of the Institute and Professor of Social Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt from 1930-1933, and again from 1949-1958. In between those periods he would lead the Institute in exile, primarily in America. As a philosopher he is best known for his work during the 1940s, including Eclipse of Reason and Dialectic of Enlightenment (co-authored with Theodor Adorno). Horkheimer's work was largely responsible for developing the epistemological and methodological orientation of Frankfurt School critical theory. This work both influenced his contemporaries (including Adorno and Herbert Marcuse) and has had an enduring influence on critical theory's later practitioners. See less