xii Preface to the 196o Edition been interrupted but not terminated; it threatens to be consummated by means of dictators and wars. Our prognosis regarding the associated lapse from enlightenment into positivism, into the myth of that which is the case,and finally of the identity of intelligence and hostility to mind, has been overwhelmingly confirmed. Our concept of history does not believe itself elevated above history, but it does not merely chase after information in the positivist manner. As a critique of philosophy it does not seek to abandon philosophy itself. From America, where the book was written, we returned to ger many with the conviction that, theoretically and practically, we would be able to achieve more there than elsewhere. Together with Friedrich Pollock, to whom the book is dedicated on his seventy-fifth birthday as it was then on his fiftieth, we built up the Institut fur Sozialforschung once again, with the idea of taking further the concepts formulated in dialectic In continuing to develop our theory, and in the common experiences con- nected with it, Gretel Adorno has given us the most valuable assistance, as she did with the first version We have made changes far more sparingly than is usual with re-edi tions of books dating back several decades. We did not want to retouch what we had written, not even the obviously inadequate passages. To bring the text fully up to date with the current situation would have amounted to nothing less than writing a new book. That what matters today is to preserve and disseminate freedom, rather than to accelerate, however indi- rectly, the advance toward the administered world, we have also argued in our later writings. We have confined ourselves here to correcting misprints and suchlike matters. This restraint has made the book a piece of docu mentation; we hope that it is also more Max horkheimer Theodor W. Adorno frankfurt am Main, April roog