CRITICAL THEORY A Very Short Introduction OXFORDitical theory? Philosophy has evidenced a subversive element from its inception. Plato's Apology tells how Socrates was condemned by the Athenian citizenry for eonrupting the morals ofthe young and doubting the gods. There was some truth to that complaint Socrates called conventional wisdom into question. He subjected long-standing beliefs to rational scrutiny and speculated about concerns that projected beyond the existing order. What becarne ‘own as “rita theory” was built upon this gaey. The new Philosophical tendency was generated between World War I and World War If, and its most important representatives would wage clenting assault on the exploitation, repression, and alienation embedded within Western civilization. Ctitical theory refs to identify freedom with any institutions) arrangement o ied sytem of thought. It questions the hidden sumptions and purposes of competing theories and existing brs of practice. Ithas litle use for whats known as “perennial Philosophy Critical theony insists that thought must respond to ‘he new problems and the new possiblities or iberation that from changing historieal cireumstances. Interdisiplinary x, deeply skeptical of nd uniquely experimental i chara ration and all absolute claims, critical theory was alvays concerned not merely with how things were but how they mightital ery bbe and should be. This ethical imperative edits primary thi” ianary to develop acustrof themes anda ne erteal neta tit transformed our understanding of society. Critical theory has many sources. Immanuel fi 0 Kant identifi autonomy as the highest value forthe individual, Ete yy esc! theory with its dbniton of scientiferatione ead ‘0al of confronting reality with the prospects of freed, Meanwhile Hegel understood consciousness as ee history, thinking inked to practi is epoch comprehended in thought” Critical theories ore interpret the particular with an eye on the totality. “Pp none! freedom appeared in the demand for. recognition byt, ips and the exploited. oe the motor 0 Both Kant and Hegel inated th 1¢ cosmopolitan suerol assumptions deriving from the “nd univ wtions deriving from the European Enlighten set pe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They relied wre 0 combat spersition, prejudice and he hoo? ae of institutional authority: They also speculated abou 2Y one hopes expressed by aesthetics, the redemptive longiny 2° BO scons antennas ting sour he een of heory and practice. The young Karl Marx went ever, 2; 2°82", his utopian reflections on human emancipatios Farther sit tcl hor was consi within the intellectual ee pe its leading representatives were from th = ismissive of economic determinism, the stage theor ‘ And any alist ballein the “netable wien, Theme conor en wh wit laa a than the political and cultural “superstructure” Conomic ‘Their Marxism was of a different sty. The ie societ it variety. They highligh ¢ 9! critical method over its systematic claims, its concern gtd its alienation and reification, its complicated relationship, ith ideals of the Enlightenment, its utopian moment, its ex,» th the ‘pon the role of eno and commitannt owt ¢ Phas teipie Start OF hjsto¥4 concerns, jose nd philostP™Y* deformation ofthe individual. This complex of themes constitutes the core of critical theory as it was conceived by the leading figures ‘of "Western Marxism”: Karl Korseh and Georg Lukes. These two thinkers provided the framework for the critical project that later became identified with the Institute for Social Research—or “the Frankfurt School” is principal members included ‘Theodor W. Adorno, notable for his consummate knowledge of musie and philosophy, who began uate in 1928, but did not become his collaboration with the Tnst 1] member until ten years later; Erich Fromm, gifted an of psychologist, who started his nine-year collaboration in 1930; Herbert Marcuse, a philosopher with wide-ranging talents, who joined in 1993; Walter Benjamin, the most ereative ofthese thinkers, who never officially was a member at all; and Jiirgen Habermas, who became its leading philosopher in the aftermath ‘of 1968 and surely the most prolific thinker associated with the Institute. Its guiding light, however, was Max Horkheimer. He brought together these extraordinary intellectuals in order to construct the interdisciplinary basis for aeritical theory of| society. “the Frankfurt School initially believed that its intellectual work. vould aid the practical prospects for revolutionary action by the however the revolution proletariat. As the 1930s wore o Aegenerated in the Soviet Union, and its prospects faded. Fascism had audaciously entered political life, humane hopes originally associated with modernity appeared increasingly naive. The Frankfurt School registered this historical shift by subjecting long-standing leftist belies in the inherently progressive character of science and technology, popular er eation, and mass polities to withering interrogation, sn. were confronted from the ightenment and Mar The En standpoint oftheir unrealized ideals asthe Frankfurt School 1ed the historical dialectic through insights gleaned from 3 refashion® - Aono ein ay oRonpereal Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietasche, Franz Kafka, Ma Proust, Samuel Beckett, and the modemist heritage. Ci theory began the process of reclaiming forgotten utopian sistance under circumstances i Tonger existe tical image’ in whieb she and neglected ideals o the possibility for realizing them seemingly no ative dialecties" whose popula result was a new form of “ne has only grown among contemporary academics. 1d establishmentarit® ‘The Frankfurt School had always considere yl philosophies as obstacles to bringing about a liberated so: ‘members condemned the preoccupation with absolute foundations, analyte categories, and fixed criteria for verifying truth lam They saw two main culprits: phenomenology, with set ontological claims about how individuals experi nd positivism, with its demand that society be analyzed according to the erteria ofthe natural sciences. Both were attacked for treating society in a-histovical terms and eliminatin genuine subjectivity. Critical theory was intended as an alternative. It was fueled by a transformative intent and a particular concern with the culture of modern lite. Alienation and reification are the two ideas most commonly ‘associated with critical theory. The former is usually identified seit the psychological effects of exploitation and the division of Jabor, and the latter with how people are treated instromentally, things,’ through concepts that have been ripped from their torical context. Pioneering studies of alienation and reification tad already been undertaken by Western Marxists during the ankfiurt Sehoo! provided a unique sense of how tegories impacted upon individuals in advanced 19208, but the F ‘complex ca thes industrial society cestigated the ways in which thinking was being reduce BE is operative and profitable, ethieg, 1 and aesthetic enjoyment was noted with alarm, to mechanical notions of what reflection was tending to vans! vere standardized. Critical theorists» hove interpre interpreting modern soci ‘lificult, Alienation and reification were thus analyzed in terms of ow they imperte the exercise of subjectivity, robbed the world Of meaning and purpos *chwitz was seen as inearnating the most radical implication J event that mand reification, It was the watersh "adically than the Lishon did during the eighteen century. With ima Hiro, arthqui rncentration camps still fresh Hiroshima and Nagasaki destroyed, m ing about Se Soviet Gulag, and MeCarthyism on the rise in the United States, itappeai reports emer 0 the Frankfurt School as if Western “villzation had generated not human development but an paralleled barbarism that something more was Th eine from radial thought than the usa tal evtiqu of capitalism, " : i A bureaueratically administered mass ating al forms of individual ity, and generating personality structures with autonomy. Ie apitalist development is connect as ‘tandardization and reification, then progress actally constitutes form of re a : ssression. Illusions associated withthe Enlightenment, neritically accep All mem hers ofthe Frankfurt School agreed on the need for ‘neveased education to counteract authoritarian trends. Buti "mained unclear how effective such education might prove tobe in totally administered society. A new “culture industry ‘arguably theory — was "Y Was constantly striving to lower the lowest common in order to maximize sales. Authentie individualexperience and class consciousness were being threatened by the consumerism of advaneed capitalism. Allthis led Fteorkhsimee™> Adomo, and Marease to claim thatthe extent to which ¢ wore becomes popular—regardless ofits political me wessagze—ig the extent to which its radical impulse willbe integrated inty the system, These thinkers became champions ofan experinentetd modernist art and, in the charged climate ofthe pos twaryor4oAs radical beliefs. Nevertheless, the esoterieand indineqe ne oe critical theory only increased its appeal among radia intellectuals involved in the uprisings of the 1960s, Critical theory always had an anticipatory ch matory character. 5 4gyoC PES projected the transformation of everyday life and ign gS °° ‘experience, The Frankfurt School not only contestan gt! tea ¢stablishmentarian views of history, but projected a radical alternative. European radicals applied its ideas to reconfiguring ‘the family, sexuality, and education. They sought to bring about a new utopian sensibility devoid of erulty and competition. But the Frankfurt Schoo! split over the movements connected withthe 1960s. Adorno and Horkhveimer were skeptical. They questioned, the counter-culture and the assault on tradition, the sporadic violence and the anti-intellectualism, as well as the comfort radical activists supposedly gave tothe enemies of democracy. wy identified the mass movements ofthe 1960s with those of| the interwar period, and they associated utopian thinking with totalitarianism, Genuine resistance now seemed to call for highlighting the negative moment within the eritcal tradition. Especially Adorno {argued thatthe point was no longer one of merely refusing to identity freedom with any system, or collectivity, but rather of conceptualizing the “non-identity” (and heightening the tension) between the individual and society. Concern with organized resistance and institutional politics fell by the wayside in favor of 'naesthetie-philosophieal form of ertique or, in the ease of Horkheimer, a quasi-religious “longing forthe totally other” The Frankfurt Sehool sill employed the method inherited from Hegel and Marx. Its most politically eonserv ‘subjectivity as enmeshed within what it resisted: the commodity form, mass culture, and the bureaueratie society. But they east ‘new suspicions on universal claims, philosophical foundations, and the fixed nar ive members still viewed. ‘Negative dialeeties” antieipated many concerns associated with, Postmodernism and poststructuralism, So much so, infact, that they are now often treated as expressions of eitial theory Deconstruetive or poststructuralist approaches invaded the most Prestigious journals and disciplines ranging from anthropology and film to religion, linguistis, and politcal science. They ‘Senerated new insights on race and gender as well as the Mepostcolonial world. In the process, however, critical theory lost ne of society, conceptualize 8 ‘meaningful polities, and project new ideals of liberation, Text ‘exegesis, cultural preoccupations, and metaphysical disputation’ increasingly tured critical theory into a victim ofits own suco* ‘The result has been an enduring identity risis. forward. The Frankfurt School has enriched our understanding! 22 aaa ee ee eee and global life. Even those thinkers who were most critical of the Enlightenment offer important grounds for a reasoned defense Seen tes Sener emit eth ein a eee parte ea within a new global society. Chapter! The Frankfurt School {pee for Social Research was founded in 1923. Growing tae ty soup, hich sgh toda Wit the | ite yn aesbolems ficng the labor movement in the aftermath of Imre ist hr in nls dl b Merman mde his for! ™S Biven at © *Salon pols? The “Weil. He was an enlightened businessman, who janeon the grain market in Argentina, The money ; who considered himself gre urging of his son, Fel vile . friends included Kurt Albert Gerlach, A social Rei 21084 ant Walls © zi "a.n economist, he would have become the first erat ar “F pstitute, Unfortunately, however, Gerlach died of ctog of ree fine Official Hie, a © Ceriinberg thus took over instead. He founded the ication ofthe Institute the Archive forthe i. 1a ism and the Labor Movement, which plished an etY of SOFT pifieant works including Korsehis Mareésm and Physi ber of #225 3). Grinberg, was joined by Henryk Grossmann, "Sophy CLP “ja, Weitz Sternberg, and Karl August Wittfogel, AIL i . ey were still nostalgic for the 2 ers councils oF 1918-1921, and they envisioned ‘OF 6 Republic. Ther intalletual efforts fer arch © Gn capitalist breakdown, the new role of the state, 5 But tis group would fade into the background, Tieh POLO’ pamunists. 1 of yg teh POTS, gnmunists. Reis