Karl Popper and the Frankfurt School

Abstract The infamous “methodology dispute” in German sociology that occurred primarily between Popper and Adorno, with further details taken care of by such surrogates as Hans Albert and the young Habermas, is best described as a misfire. Popper admitted he did not know the work of the Frankfurt School at the time, and even claims he was unaware they were committed to Hegelian-Marxism until well after the debate or he would simply have repeated the arguments he made years earlier in The Poverty of Historicism. Popper considered Adorno a poor philosopher but an interesting cultural critic, and specifically a good music theorist (since that was one of Popper's life-long interests).