ABSTRACT
You come from a generation whose school and early university years coincided with the First World War, and, perhaps, something of the sorrow that runs through Critical Theory can be attributed to the experience of a world perishing in the war. When I take a look at this theory today, ten years after the time we studied it so intensely, I have the impression that there is much more [Georg] Simmel and much more [Max] Weber to be found in the thought of the “Frankfurt School” than Marx. In any case, more than we thought as we were adopting the theories. What role did irrationalists, vitalistic philosophers like Simmel play in your university years? Is it not the case that more of their thought found its way into Critical Theory than is to be suggested by its explicit statements?
