This article evaluates the pertinence of Engel's lemma according to which Marxism is the "heir of German idealism" in Lukác's, Horkheimer's and Adorno's theories. While Lukács considers the Marxist method as springing from the Hegelian philosophy and Horkheimer explicitly assumes the Kantian legacy, Adorno does not intend to be himself the heir, but the critic of the German idealism.
Dialectics; reason; critical theory; western Marxism; German idealism