Jürgen Habermas
Max Horkheimer
When your relationship with your boss has gone sour, read this, and you might feel better:
While he was associated with the Institute for Social Research, Habermas demonstrated from the beginning an independent intellectual orientation. A 1957 article by Habermas got him into trouble with the leader of the Institute, Max Horkheimer. Habermas urged critical thought and practical action, but Horkheimer was afraid that such a position would jeopardize the publicly funded Institute. Horkheimer recommended that Habermas be dismissed from the Institute. Horkheimer said of Habermas, “He probably has a good, or even brilliant, career as a writer in front of him, but would only cause the Institute immense damage”.
The article eventually was published, but not under the auspices of the Institute and with virtually no reference to it. Eventually Horkheimer enforced impossible conditions on Habermas’ work and the latter resigned.
(Ritzer, George. 2004. Modern Sociological Theory, Beijing: Peking University Press: 432 – 433.)
