menu

Thinkers

Max Horkheimer

Critical Theory · Europe · 1895 to 1973

German thinker who led the Frankfurt School and argued that reason had turned into a tool of control.

What it is

Max Horkheimer (1895 to 1973) was a German philosopher and social thinker. He was born in Stuttgart, directed the Institute for Social Research, and is known for his role in developing critical theory. The institute is associated with the Frankfurt School.

Critical theory is an interdisciplinary movement that combined Marxist-oriented political philosophy with social and cultural analysis informed by empirical research. Horkheimer's own writing took up the critique of instrumental reason.

The main ideas

  • Critical theory. He is credited with developing this approach, which joins Marxist-oriented thought with the study of society and culture, and which he set against traditional theory.
  • Instrumental reason. He criticised the Enlightenment notion of instrumental reason and linked it with the rise of fascism and other forms of totalitarianism.
  • The eclipse of reason. In 1947 he also published Eclipse of Reason, which deals with the same theme.
  • A school of thinkers. The institute and the circle around it came to be known as the Frankfurt School.

What it looks like in practice

Imagine a company that asks only how to get more clicks, and never whether clicks are what anyone needs. Horkheimer would point to the missing question as a sign of reason reduced to a tool. This is an illustration of the idea, not a passage from his writing.

Books and moments

  • Traditional and Critical Theory (1937) is an essay that sets critical theory against traditional theory.
  • Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), written with Theodor Adorno, is a book on the Enlightenment and instrumental reason.
  • Eclipse of Reason (1947) is a further book of his, on instrumental reason.
  • After the Nazi seizure of power he left Germany for the United States, where the institute was re-established at Columbia University. He went back to Frankfurt in 1949 or 1950, as the pages differ on the year.

Questions and criticism

  • Is reason the culprit? Critics can ask whether a narrow use of reason is a fault of reason itself or of how a society uses it.
  • Hope. It is an open question whether the critique of the self-destruction of enlightenment leaves room for hope or for action.
  • Theory and practice. It is fair to ask what critical theory changes in the world if it only criticises.

Close neighbours

The pages on Theodor Adorno, his main co-author, and Herbert Marcuse and Jurgen Habermas, are the closest. Karl Marx is the older thinker behind the tradition.

Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 29 October 2026. The sources are listed below.

Who they connect to

Influenced

  • Theodor Adorno · The two worked together for decades and co-wrote a book on how reason turns into control.

Influenced by

  • Karl Marx · He set out critical theory as a renewal of Marx's criticism of society.

Other Critical Theory thinkers

Sources we used

Read more elsewhere

See where you stand Find them on the map

Something wrong or missing on this page? Tell us.