Karl Popper and the Reconstution of the Rationalist Left

Notwithstanding the great ‘positivist dispute’ of the 1960s, Karl Popper and Theodor
Adorno upheld many of the same general philosophical sensibilities, which together
distinguish them from the ‘postmodern’ social theory that has flourished in the wake
of their dispute. In particular, both Popper and Adorno upheld a universalist conception
of knowledge underwritten by a critical mode of inquiry. These basic tenets
constitute what I call the ‘rationalist left’, in contrast to the post-rationalist, postleftist
epistemic politics of today. Implicit in the common ground shared by Popper
and Adorno was an institutional basis for universal criticism, namely, the university.
A sign of the distance we have moved from their shared sensibility is the status of
the university today as either a pale transcendental idea (Habermas) or a mere physical
site for the play of social forces (Lyotard). I attempt to pick up the pieces of the
Popper-Adorno dispute in an attempt to ‘reconstitute’ the rationalist left.

Keywords: positivist dispute, critical theory, rationalist left