Wider group focus institute

also felt that Marx's thinking should be tested against specific historical circumstances and
problems, which they observed in their own countries etc
2 important ideas at the foundation of the institute
-the revolution which Marx assumed in theory did not come about at all
Problem faced by critical thinkers in nazi germany: they saw no increasing signs at all that
proeltariat became more and more aware of its exploited situation, even opposite, became
cosnervative, collaborated with capitalists, started voting for extreme right,
So theoretical alternative needed

Max Horkheimer and the crisis of Marxist social criticism

● Theoretical problems: conception of science
🞆 Positivism: gathering empirical 'facts' on the basis of 'value-neutral' research, preferably in
the form of rigid theoretical models and 'laws'
🞆 E.g. Economics (neo-classical theory, Marxist economics)
🞆 Critical theory rejects assumption of 'necessary' and 'rational' course of history and
possibility of neutral registration of social and historical facts
● Practical problems: conception of the revolutionary role of the proletariat
🞆 Horkheimer's research into the political views of the German workers (fascism)
🞆 Authoritarian developments in Russia of the 1930s
Positivism: on the basis of value-neutral research gather empirical facts and try to formulate
laws
Rejects necessary and universal laws
There are no laws behind them, we have to shape them ourselves

Horkheimer: 'critical theory'

● Question of how criticism as a political position is possible must be asked again
🞆 Leaving idea that science is one with political forces: need for 'critique' from norms such as
freedom, equality, democracy

Abandon idea of rational history and proletariat as bearers of history: rather explain how it is
possible for people to maintain a system that prevents their emancipation
Assumes that differentiation that exists between science and thought on the one hand and
politics on the other is much more strongly drawn here
Horkheimer endorsed Marx's thesis about increasing concentration of capital and power:
"At the end of this process is a society, no longer controlled by independent owners, but by
industrial and leadership cliques."
And that, for Horkheimer, is all the more reason for social criticism:
"Society must be measured against the idea of a future society as the community of free
people, as it is possible on the basis of the available technical means."
Max Horkheimer in "Traditionelle und Kritische Theorie
Explains the difference between traditional and critical theory
There was very many polarization, power and income with small group, large group opposite
Media and consciousness industry are made by same companies owned by small click of
people with very much capital
Gene unambiguous historically established path to a solution We must study well how that
works

Dialectics of Enlightenment (1944)

● The promise of human freedom, reason and autonomy has turned into its opposite
● The enlightened world turns out to be a world of oppression, total control and
control of the so-called 'liberated' individuals'
Dalectics= threefold movement in which on the one hand a thesis is stated, which then turns
into its antithesis and then can be resolved into a synthesis
To seek freedom of many (thesis) is then to seek unfreedom of many= one wants equality =
antithesis, snythesis where one wants to combine equality and freedom
● Reason is reduced to a method of classifying and formalizing the various domains of
reality in such a way as to classify and formalize the reality within the domain of control and
manipulation
● Reason, the instrument of enlightenment, has itself become irrational: the
calculating, instrumental, control-oriented rationality is itself revered in an irrational, quasi-
magical way
● Anything that cannot be expressed in the economic or technical logic of 'utility,' 'efficiency,'
and
'returns' is dismissed as 'irrational' or 'subjective' Broad concept of rationality is reduced to a
trick used to control reality
Reason instead of an instrument of human freedom turned into something oppressive
Irrational worship of that controlling rationality
Everything that cannot be expressed in the limited reductionist language of e.g. technology,
the language of economic profit, utility efficiency et cetera, is dismissed as unimportant;
considered emotional, subjective, less relevant
Rationality because it is interpreted narrowly, turned into something irrational
E.g.: what is the value of nature?
Expressing valuation in 'willingness to pay'
Multiple valuation
(e.g. water buffering, connectivity function, rare habitats, secure income for farmers, living in
the valley, ) - then capture cost/benefit of any plans for different values
What will it cost us if we don't let the water storm freely? How much economic cost will that
create? = How we collectively think about problems
Is very limiting, if not irrational way of thinking when measured against initial goals of
enlightenment

The philosophical dimension: identity thinking

● Capitalist commodity society oppresses by reducing every human relationship to a trading
relationship (from use-value to exchange-value)
● Like the capitalist system of production, any totalitarianism, in order to run lubricated
run, benefited from the elimination of differences.
● Identity thinking: a thinking determined by already known concepts, in which one tries to
accommodate all
one tries to classify everything one perceives as a specific specimen of a general species
● Primacy of recognizability and of "what simply exists": what does not
recognizably fits into a category has no right to exist. Belief in coincidence of 'thought' and
'reality' leads to uncritical acceptance of it
● Adorno's theoretical resistance lay in his development of a 'non
identity thinking' or 'negative dialectic' This view takes into account that every phenomenon,
every human being carries a 'rest' within him that cannot be reduced to a concept or a
category.
Different dimensions in discerned
Adorno discerns an identity mindset in modern society: we always start from general
concepts, and then we try to squeeze what we perceive into these abstract categories, so we
do not do justice to the particularity of that which exists
Negative thinking: the rest, the distinction between private and general must be taken as a
starting point and not simply dismissed, do not simply assume the primacy of recognizability:
start from it, that's just what it is, case fully explained by concepts we have developed for it,
and all der est is irrelevant
Belief in coincidence of dthinking and reality and that causes uncritical acceptance of what
exists, there is what it is
Identity thinking
You have to try to take that difference, the non-identity seriously

The political-pyschological dimension: 'The authoritarian personality'

● Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) 'What is enlightenment': idea of psychological dependence on
authority
● Freud's psychoanalysis: ambivalent 'worship of' and 'fear of' authority
● Study 'The authoritarian personality' (Adorno, et,a, 1950): examination of the
specific psychological and sociological dimensions of voluntary submission and dependence

In his famous essay "What is enlightenment?", Kant argued that a lack of individual
autonomy is due to laziness and cowardice. This caused the general acceptance of the rules
of the Church and nobility. Kant argued that it was more comfortable to be dependent and not
autonomous. This made it possible for someone, Kant argued, to avoid the pressure that an
individual must use his own mind. Kant actually mentioned for the first time the principle of
authoritarian response.
Individuals became so adapted to their dependent state that that dependence almost began
to be a part of their nature. These individuals even began to love their state of dependence.
The consequence of this state of dependence, Kant concluded, was the inability to rebel
against illegitimate control. Kant even added when the bonds of this dependence were
eased, these individuals would not take advantage of the benefit offered to them by their new
freedom. This idea of psychological dependence on authority was further developed by
Adorno, et al.
Influence Freud: oral explanations
Systematic research on the specific psychological and sociological dimensions of voluntary
submission and dependence was emerging at the beginning of the twentieth century. The
research team of "The authoritarian personality" subjected 2,000 respondents to a
questionnaire on personality and attitude and decided that it was "not difficult" to find
research subjects who showed that they would accept fascism
accept it if it were a socially accepted and respectable ideology. Important dimension
Famous book: collective work of versch authors
Starting point: one should not simply adopt rules of conduct from those in power but think
about them oneself
But people like to conform to common sense
Thinking for yourself is not so easy, requires a lot of effort, we have natural tendency to let
mind get lost a bit
More comfortable to have thinking done by others
People lose ability to rebel against unjust relations, they become dependent on authorities
We as humans are inclined to revere authority, as a child we revere authority figure father,
we would like to be like the one iwj admire, and at the same time afraid of
Four scales were designed. Three of these scales were developed to measure anti-Semitism
(AS), ethnocentrism (E), political and economic conservatism (PEC). The fourth scale was
then to measure the potential for fascism.
Certain dimensions in authoritarian personality structure

The cultural dimension of subjugation: culture industry

● Classical Marxist view of culture is too simplistic (twofold reduction: any
religious, ideal or cultural phenomenon/problem is radically reduced to a historical, social
phenomenon; all historical, social phenomena are themselves reduced to their socio-
economic ground structure)
● As in functionalism (structure/culture), the function of superstructure is
primarily understood in terms of (cultural) integration
● In contrast to functionalism, however, culture is dominated by an irreducible
antagonism (class oppositions). Collective representations have the function of masking the
real antagonism and thus reproducing it = ideology
What are the shared beliefs values and norms we all have about what reality looks like
Which are produced
Everything that is irrational in nature can only be properly understood if you reduce it to
where it comes from
All the ideas that people have reflect their position in economic substructure Way of thinking
that marx has when it comes to culture and soc structure, which is very similar to what we
have seen with parsons functionalism
There are certain views that we have about how reality is constructed and they are functional
for the reproduction of society
Function culture consists of making what is eignally irreconcilable seem reconcilable=
ideological function, all that take for true is mainly aimed at covering up what is actually
unacceptable because it is grounded irreducible societal class differences
Eg: we share common belief that we are ind authentic free people who have desires bubbling
up from our own selves, we can show by buying certain goods, wearing clothes, thus we
express individuality = Marxism:that is typical ideology functional for reproduction capitalist
consumer society

Art as a last protest and refuge

● Just as religion can, good art generates aesthetic experiences that transcend the here and
now. For A & H, therefore, aesthetic experiences are a source of inspiration because in doing
so, it is experienced that something else (other meanings, other social relations, etc.) is
possible.
● A & H think 'beyond Marx' here: cultural and artistic phenomena are not
mere ideological reflections of class interests. Although art always remains tied to society
(hen aar claims to transcend it are false), art also acts as a "prism" in which glimpses of a
different, happy society can be caught.
● Real art, therefore, has a critical content. Until the social
contradictions in reality are reconciled, art must represent the torn

inhuman reality along with the desire for a better society.

● The Frankfurter Schule's major criticism of contemporary
cultural production now was that the protest core, the negative dimension of art, had
disappeared in mass culture, swallowed up and absorbed by the existing.