Abstract

The controversy between Popper and Adorno at the conference held by the German Sociological Association at Tübingen in 1961, brought into focus issues that had been simmering for some years, and which were to go far beyond methodological dispute, into the foundational question of the relation between theory and society. The concept of totality and its concomitant totalitarian moral implications provide the initial focus, and it is argued that the apparent incommensurability of the two attitudes towards this concept derives not merely from substantive theoretical differences, but from distinct modes of theorizing through language. This in turn, has implications for the understanding of their respective constructions of, and relations to, reality. A comparative analysis of statements made by both men reveals the essentially monologic nature of one orientation.