This work aims to demonstrate that the politically justified ideological categorization of Horkheimer as leftist and Freyer as rightist is not appropriate when considering their epistemological foundation developed from a synthesis of Marxism and existentialism. Both engage with the issues of late bourgeois culture, as articulated by Max Weber in the problem of cognitive alienation and Karl Marx in relation to life-world alienation: this refers to the subjugation of modern individuals to the dictates of the scientific-industrial world (life-world alienation) and the loss of a culturally interpretable world (cognitive alienation) following the end of metaphysics. Freyer and Horkheimer address the problem of cognitive alienation by examining the conflict of worldviews within the framework of e.