WEEK ONE WEEK TWO WEEK THREE WEEK FOUR
• Introduction, What is • Dialectic of the • Herbert Marcuse: who, • Jürgen Habermas
Critical Social Theory (CST)? Enlightenment (EL) Freud and CT, Freud, • Readings*
• History and Emergence of • Readings of Horkheimer, Marcuse’s adaptation of • Marcuse tutorial
Frankfurt School Adorno and Kant Freud, One-Dimensional • Ideology and science
• Marxism and Neo-Marxists • Movie: The Corporation Man (1964) tutorial
• The Odyssey
WEEK ONE
1. Discuss the historical context of establishment of the Frankfurt ISR and the intellectuals associated with the Frankfurt School.
2. Discuss the relationship between Marx, Marxism, Neo-Marxists, with reference to what the Neo-Marxists took over from Marxism and how they differed
from it.
3. Discuss the difference between the narrow and broad definitions of critical social theory. Explain how critical theory differs from traditional theory.
4. Give a critical appraisal of the Neo-Marxists.
Introductory Discussion
• “Critical” > seeks human liberation from enslaving circumstances
• What is wrong with society, class stratification, domination and alienation?
• Practical dimension – what, how, whom, practical tools, praxis > change
• Normative part > basis of critique and its goals
• “Eternal vigilance” > we need to remain weary of how our minds are invaded by ideologies/understandings because this could serve domination
• Ideology > uses symbolism/language to establish, justify exploitation, not neutral (even if it portrays itself as such) = distorts, reifies, displaces
relations and meanings
• Ideology links with Marx’s “false consciousness” > legitimize interests of ruling class, justificatory function of ideology
• Ideology critique > recognize these ideological mechanisms
• IDEOLOGY = MEANING IN THE SERVICE OF DOMINATION/ASSYMETRICAL POWER RELATIONS
• Narrow definition of CST: The context of the 1920s established Frankfurt School in Germany (three generations)
• Broader definition of CST: development of CST with a similar critical method
, • Possible criticism: Is CST perhaps Eurocentric?
What is Critical Social Theory (CST)?
• 20th century European intellectualism by Frankfurt Institute for Social Research (ISR)
• Targeted Phenomenology and Existentialism, competed with Structuralism and Post-
Structuralism, targeted Positivism (affirms status quo, social reality presented as facts)
• NARROW SENSE
✓ Several generations of German philosophers and theorists in German Frankfurt School,
Western European Marxists
✓ Founders were first generation, second generation include Habermas, third generation of
social theorists (Honneth)
• BROAD SENSE
✓ Descriptive and normative basis for social inquiry, free from domination, maximize
freedom + human emancipation from slavery
✓ Horkheimer (1937) = the main elements of Critical Theory (criteria)
DESCRIPTIVE NORMATIVE TRANSFORMATIVE/PRACTICAL
✓ Descriptive = explain what is wrong with society
✓ Normative = norms/basis for critique, set goals for social transformation
✓ Transformative action = practical component, seeking human emancipation, changing
social reality
✓ Critical Theory should transform all oppressive circumstances (comprehensive), linked to
transformative movements (e.g. BLM, feminism)
✓ CT = a multidisciplinary approach (i.e. incorporate both Philosophy and other Social
Sciences)
Traditional Theory
• Sum of propositions linked in a system, consonant with facts, truth, ideas or principles to
explain further facts/events
• E.g. Natural Science inductive method for theories = neutral, objective, rational, universal
• Neo-Marxist critique of Traditional Theory:
✓ Neutral pretense but actually affirms status quo
✓ Hides agenda
✓ No such thing as a neutral theory, all facts/theories are value-laden
✓ Encapsulates the normative (existing norms)
✓ Shaped by and shapes social reality
✓ A useful theory is emancipatory, aware of its position, its interest is
human liberation
Critical Theory as opposed to Traditional Theory (Horkheimer)
• Theory should be praxis orientated > a practical enterprise in the moral Horkheimer
sense
• Explanatory, practical, normative (above criteria)
• Humans are self-creating producers of their own history = normative goal is take control
over the circumstances of our existence
, • We are oppressed because we lack this control
• CT is never neutral = it is a danger to the status quo
• The project of the ISR = comprehensive critique and transformation of capitalism (and
Enlightenment, feminism, racism, sexism, colonialism, environmental exploitation)
• The broader meaning of CT still influences contemporary movements
• Important insights:
✓ Social tensions are because of history (man-made) = not necessary (we CAN control
the circumstances of our existence)
✓ Helps with interdisciplinary approaches
✓ Alternative to mainstream political and social Philosophy concerning freedom,
justice, democracy, critical thinking in our time
*READ HORKHEIMER’S 1937 “TRADITIONAL AND CRITICAL THEORY”
Emergence and History of the Frankfurt School
• Context: trauma of Weimar Republic, expatriation, return (before and after war)
“CT was born into the trauma of the Weimar Republic, grew to maturity in expatriation, and
received cultural currency on its return from exile”
• ISR is more than 100 years old and went through different phases, focus questions
• Founded in 1923 (already four years of Weimar Republic) >> private donations allowed it to
continue existing
• Amidst political turmoil in Germany, failed Socialist Revolution (1918), Russian Revolution
• First seven years = workers uprising as Marx predicted
• 1930s (Horkheimer director) = amidst crisis of capitalism (Depression), fascism, Horkheimer
reformulated philosophical problems in the W (Dialectic of Enlightenment)
• ISR exiled into Switzerland and then the US
• Second generation = Habermas (1984), third generation = Honneth (1994)
• Marx, Nietzsche, Freud = “prophets/masters of suspicion”
• CT has a long history, complex, diverse, not fully coherent (different views), tensions
(Habermas example), different interpretations of Marx, different vocabularies, need for
contemporary relevance
Marxism and Neo-Marxism Marxian (direct ref to Marx)
Marxist (broader movement foll. Marxian)
• Marx and Engels = looked at the conditions of workers and needed
theoretical explanations to criticize capitalism
• They studied concrete changes in European society
Marxist Materialism (opposed to idealism) > world precedes
consciousness e.g. class consciousness (you are shaped by your class position)
• Other materialist philosophers = Nietzsche + Freud
• Anyone who adopts Marxists theories = Neo-Marxists (but this is also in specific reference to
the Frankfurt ISR)
• When Horkheimer was director, there was strong theory + praxis based approach (Marxian
ideal that they speak to each other)
• Main themes of ISR:
