ROBERTA DE BARTOLO MARIANO

Our objective is to show the developments of the Schopenhauer's pessimism in the work of one of the founders of Critical Theory, Max Horkheimer, discussing how the transformation of this theme occurs from his early works, through the materialist analysis, the basis of Critical Theory, until the metaphysical hope of overcoming the current situation, with the return to theology, exposed at the end of the Horkheimer's career. We argue that this pessimism, as an explicit influence in Horkheimer's thought, manifests itself as a method of investigation within what Critical Theory proposes, that is, part of a diagnosis of the present in search of effective signs of emancipation, seeking to remove the understanding that the return to theology in his later work would be a sign of conformity.