There has long been a misunderstanding in academia regarding the origins of the"positivism debate in German sociology".Critics of rationalism argue that the origin of the positivism debate lies in Habermas'theoretical attack on Popper,but in reality,there was no substantive disagreement between Popper and Adorno.Dahrendorf recognized the divergence between Popper and Adorno but interpreted it as a conflict between a Kantian stance and a Hegelian stance.However,both of these views are problematic.A scrutiny of the texts of the debate reveals that the disagreement between Popper and Adorno at the Tübingen Conference was indeed the origin of the positivism debate,fundamentally demonstrating the different interpretations of Kantian critical philosophy by critical theory and critical rationalism.