Max Horkheimer discusses the relationship between history and psychology,
emphasizing the need for a characterization of the role of psychology in
the context of a theory of history. He identifies two logically opposed
concepts of history, one based on Kantianism and the other on contemporary
efforts to make ideological questions independent of scientific criteria.
Horkheimer argues that existential philosophy in the phenomenological
tradition seeks to make itself independent of the results of research in
various spheres, and that the economic or materialist conception of
history reveals itself as both the antithesis and the continuation of
Hegelian philosophy. He also highlights the significance of psychology for
historical knowledge, emphasizing the need for a psychology that
accommodates the needs of the human sciences and overcomes the weakness of
academic psychology. Horkheimer concludes by discussing the general
significance of detailed psychological work for historical research and
the importance of psychology in the current period.