Critical Theory

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by Stephen Eric Bronner


  Bronner, Stephen Eric. Reclaiming the Enlightenment: Toward a Politics of Radical Engagement. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.

  ———. A Rumor About the Jews: Anti-Semitism, Conspiracy, and the Protocols of Zion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

  Marcuse, Herbert. Negations: Essays in Critical Theory. Beacon Press: Boston, 1969.

  Rabinbach, Anson. In the Shadow of Catastrophe: German Intellectuals Between Apocalypse and Enlightenment. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.

  Chapter 5

  Abromeit, John, and W. Mark Cobb, eds. Herbert Marcuse: A Critical Reader. New York: Routledge, 2003.

  Buck-Morss, Susan. Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991.

  Daniel, James Owen, and Tom Moylan, eds. Not Yet: Reconsidering Ernst Bloch. London: Verso, 1997.

  Feenberg, Andrew, ed. Essential Marcuse. Boston: Beacon Press, 2007.

  Habermas, Jürgen. Toward A Rational Society: Student Protest, Science, and Politics. Boston: Beacon Press, 1970.

  Kellner, Douglas, et al. On Marcuse. Boston: Sense Publishers, 2008.

  Taylor, Ronald, ed. Aesthetics and Politics: The Key Texts to the Classic Debates in German Marxism. New York: Verso, 2007.

  Wolin, Richard. Walter Benjamin: An Aesthetic of Redemption. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.

  Chapter 6

  Adorno, Theodor W. The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture. Edited by J. M. Bernstein. New York: Routledge, 2001.

  ———. Prisms. Translated by Samuel Weber and Shierry Weber. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994.

  ———. The Stars Down to Earth and Other Essays on the Irrational in Culture. Edited by Stephen Crook. New York: Routledge, 1994.

  Kellner, Douglas. Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy: Terrorism, War, and Election Battles. Denver: Paradigm, 2005.

  Negt, Oskar, and Alexander Kluge. Public Sphere and Experience: Toward an Analysis of the Bourgeois and Proletarian Public Sphere. Translated by Peter Labanyi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.

  Ritzer, George. The McDonaldization Thesis: Explorations and Extensions. London: Sage, 1998.

  Scholem, Gershom. Walter Benjamin: The Story of a Friendship. Translated by Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken, 1981.

  Wolff, Robert Paul, Barrington Moore, and Herbert Marcuse. A Critique of Pure Tolerance. Boston: Beacon Press, 1969.

  Chapter 7

  Adorno, Theodor W. Lectures on Negative Dialectics. Edited by Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Rodney Livingstone. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008.

  ———. Notes to Literature. 2 vols. Edited by Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Shierrby Weber Nicholson. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.

  Adorno, Theodor W., and Walter Benjamin. The Complete Correspondence 1928–1940. Edited by Henri Lonitz. Translated by Nicholas Walker. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.

  Buck-Morss, Susan. The Origins of Negative Dialectics: Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and the Frankfurt Institute. New York: Free Press, 1979.

  Jameson, Fredric. Late Marxism: Adorno, or, The Persistence of the Dialectic. London: Verso, 1990.

  Jay, Martin. Adorno. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.

  Zuidevaart, Lambert. Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory: The Redemption of Illusion. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993.

  Chapter 8

  Adorno, Theodor W. Introduction to Sociology. Edited by Christoph Godde. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000.

  ———. Problems of Moral Philosophy. Edited by Thomas Schröder. Translated by Rodney Livingstone. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001.

  Adorno, T.W., et al., The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology. New York: Harper, 1976.

  Berlin, Isaiah. Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas. Edited by Henry Hardy. New York: Penguin, 1979.

  ———. The Magus of the North: J. G. Hamann and the Origins of Modern Irrationalism. Edited by Henry Hardy. London: John Murray, 1993.

  Dumain, Ralph. “The Autodidact Project.” Available at http://www.autodidactproject.org/.

  Fay, Brian. Critical Social Science: Liberation and Its Limits. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987.

  Habermas, Jürgen. Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action. Translated by Christine Lenhardt and Shierry Weber Nicholson. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1991.

  Kirchheimer, Otto. Politics, Law, and Social Change. Edited by Frederic S. Burin and Kurt L. Schell. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.

  Marcuse, Herbert. Technology War and Fascism: Collected Papers, vol. 1. Edited by Douglas Kellner. New York: Routledge, 1998.

  Neumann, Franz. The Democratic and Authoritarian State. Edited by Herbert Marcuse. New York: Free Press, 1957.

  Index

  Adorno, Theodor W.

  aesthetic criticism, 16–17, 27, 81, 88, 90, 93, 95–96, 97

  culture industry critique, 6, 81–82, 87–88, 93, 94

  negative dialectics, 7, 17, 94–95, 97–99

  personal life/career, 3, 10, 16–17, 32, 85, 114

  social criticism, 29, 32–33, 73–74, 76, 85, 97–99, 102–3

  writings, 11, 16–17, 27, 29, 32–33, 73–74, 81, 85, 88, 93, 94, 95, 97–99, 102–3

  See also Dialectic of Enlightenment;Minima Moralia

  aesthetics

  in critical theory, 64, 91–92, 94, 95–96

  in culture industry, 92, 111–14

  utopian visions of, 63, 70

  alienation

  causes of, 5, 25, 27, 35–43, 41

  critical theory on, 2–3, 4–5, 45–48

  and division of labor, 4, 35, 40, 46, 105

  erosion of selfhood in, 5, 39–43, 41, 53

  in modern life, 25, 105–6

  Althusser, Louis, 80

  anti-Semitism, 11, 52–53, 58, 81 See also Nazis/Nazism

  Arendt, Hannah, 15

  Aristotle, 107

  art

  aura in, 113–14

  as commodity, 27, 51, 62, 81, 87

  and culture industry, 87–88, 113–14

  expressionism, 6, 66–67, 94

  popular, 87–88, 115

  surrealism, 29, 90, 94

  utopian possibilities in, 14, 63–64, 66–67, 79, 80, 93

  authoritarianism

  in people, 102–3

  in states, 5, 45–46, 49–50

  autonomy

  erosion of, 62, 77, 98

  individual, 5, 36, 48, 52, 102, 111

  moral, 2, 54

  avant-garde, 66, 80, 90, 93–94

  Baker, Nicholson, 114

  Balzac, Honoré de, 66

  barbarism

  embedded in civilization, 52, 58, 59

  as result of progress, 5, 62, 72

  Beckett, Samuel, 3–4, 17, 96, 97, 98

  Bellamy, Edward, 74

  Benjamin, Walter, 64

  aesthetic critique, 16–17, 29, 90, 96, 97

  cultural critique, 15–16, 27, 80–81, 113–14

  personal life/career, 3, 15–16

  social critique, 30–32, 58, 109

  writings, 15–16, 27, 29, 32, 58, 109, 113

  Bergson, Henri, 59, 77

  Berlin, Isaiah, 110

  Bloch, Ernst, 93

  expressionism debate, 66–67

  on nature, 107–8

  personal life/career, 20, 43, 65–66

  Principle of Hope (Bloch), 65

  social critique, 66–68, 108, 110

  Spirit of Utopia (Bloch), 43–44, 65

  utopian visions, 43–44, 64–69, 75, 108

  written work, 43–44, 65, 66–67, 68, 69, 107, 110

  Bobbio, Norberto, 59

  bourgeoisie

  and capitalist production, 50, 60, 86

  revolutionary, 28, 36, 44–45, 52, 66

  Brecht, Bertolt, 16, 76, 92, 95, 112

  Breton, André, 90

  bureaucracy
/>   of authoritarian states, 45–46

  as “end of individual,” 5, 43, 48, 82

  resisting, 7, 99

  Burke, Edmund, 80

  Butler, Samuel, 67

  capitalism

  alienation/reification in, 5, 39–43, 49, 82

  class consciousness, 20–21, 25–26, 28, 44–45, 60

  consumerism in, 5–6, 70

  and instrumental rationality, 28, 42, 47, 55

  and private property, 35, 56

  revolutions, 28, 36, 48–49, 52, 66

  Carnap, Rudolf, 59

  class

  conflicts, 86, 89–90, 105, 110

  consciousness, 20–21, 25–26, 28, 44–45, 60

  See also proletariat/working class

  Cohn-Bendit, Danny, 91

  commodity form

  and culture industry, 17, 27, 51, 62, 81, 85, 87, 113

  people as, 40–42, 53

  resistance to, 7, 92, 94, 99

  communicative ethics, 33, 46–47, 102

  communism

  and authoritarianism, 45–46, 49–50

  failure of, 52, 86, 99

  and Frankfurt School, 10, 12, 20–23, 28, 36, 44–46, 68

  Communist International, 21, 22, 45, 66

  concentration camps

  Auschwitz, 5, 52, 93

  Buchenwald, 57, 57

  consciousness

  class, 20–21, 25–26, 28, 44–45, 60

  happy, 14, 77–78, 78, 82, 84, 87, 89

  political, 86–87

  unhappy, 77

  Counter-Enlightenment, 58, 110, 111

  critical theory

  coining of term, 20

  core themes of, 1–8, 18–19, 23–24, 29–30, 32–34, 47, 100

  future for, 8, 115–16

  human emancipation as aim, 2, 21, 24, 39

  ideological concerns, 25–28

  as interdisciplinary, 1, 11, 18, 114–15

  journals, 35, 87, 89

  legacy of, 8, 115

  limitations, 8, 88, 100–116

  methodologies, 20–34

  negation as principle of, 12, 54, 62, 74, 88, 94, 100, 112

  origins of, 1–3, 20–21

  resistance as animating ideal, 4, 7, 8, 12, 29, 33, 34, 81, 88, 94, 98–99, 100, 116

  responsiveness to new social problems, 1, 18–19, 24, 101, 115–16

  solidarity as animating ideal of, 98–99, 116

  theory vs. practice in, 2, 12, 18, 73, 74, 84, 103, 115

  transformation as animating ideal of, 6–7, 13–14, 15, 28, 91, 100, 105

  treatment of facts in, 24–25

  See also Frankfurt School

  culture industry

  as commodity form, 17, 27, 51, 62, 81, 85, 87, 113

  dance troupes, 26–27, 26

  films, 27, 87, 88

  Frankfurt School critique of, 5–6, 62, 79–88, 89–90, 99, 111–14, 115

  jazz, 78, 88

  positive uses of, 86, 89, 112–14

  radio, 17

  television, 17, 86, 113

  Dialectic of Enlightenment

  (Horkheimer and Adorno)

  critique of liberalism, 56–58

  culture industry critique, 51, 62, 77–78, 81, 87

  and instrumental rationality, 51–56, 58, 59–62

  limitations of, 58–62

  publication and sequel, 11, 51, 62

  Dutschke, Rudi, 91

  Engels, Friedrich, 28

  Enlightenment

  autonomy/individuality in, 52, 53, 109

  ethical ideals, 2, 52, 54, 109

  Frankfurt School engagement with, 3–4, 5, 8, 12, 48, 53, 109–14

  and instrumental rationality, 53–59, 109

  legacy of, 58, 109–14

  ethics

  communicative, 33, 46–47, 102

  in critical theory, 1–2, 29, 47

  disappearance in modern life, 42–43, 53

  European modernism, 93–94

  European radical uprisings, 7, 20, 22, 44, 109

  Existentialism, 33, 72, 100

  fascism

  Frankfurt School critique of, 3, 45–46, 52

  roots of, 55, 59–60, 61

  Feuerbach, Ludwig, 40

  Frankfurt School, 6, 100

  debates, 66–67, 107–8

  exile/return to Germany, 11, 12, 20, 84

  interdisciplinary style, 1, 11, 18, 114–15

  principal members/founding of, 3, 10–18

  in public realm, 84–85

  See also critical theory

  freedom

  as animating ideal in critical theory, 1, 2, 7, 17, 18, 98–99, 116

  Hegel-Marx dialectic, 36, 37–43, 48

  in modern society, 108

  and negative dialectics, 97, 98–99

  and nonconformity, 77

  utopian visions of, 64, 68

  Freud, Sigmund, 12, 29, 54, 70, 73–74

  Fromm, Erich

  career/personal life, 3, 12, 13–14, 73, 84

  on metapsychology, 72–74

  social/psychological critique, 12–14, 25, 29, 45, 49

  writings, 12–13, 25, 29, 45, 49, 73

  Garden of Eden, 36, 67, 67

  Gerlach, Kurt Albert, 9

  Germany, 11, 14, 60

  Goethe, Johann W. von, 16, 57, 57, 70

  Gramsci, Antonio, 21–22, 44, 60

  Grass, Günther, 72

  “great refusal,” 14, 89–90, 109

  Grossmann, Henryk, 9

  Grünberg, Carl, 9

  Gutermann, Norbert, 11

  Habermas, Jürgen

  communicative ethics, 46–47, 102

  personal life/career, 3, 10, 17–18, 47, 83, 84–85

  philosophical analysis, 18, 33, 46–47, 72

  political critique, 18, 82–83, 84–85

  writings, 18, 33, 46–47, 72, 82, 83

  Hamann, Johann Georg, 110

  Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 93

  on alienation, 37–39, 100

  dialectic of freedom, 37–43, 48, 77

  on non-identity between individual and society, 97–99

  philosophical method, 2, 7

  Heidegger, Martin, 24

  historical materialism

  and critical theory, 14–15, 16, 18, 25, 28–30, 99

  Marxist views of, 20, 22

  historicity, 14

  history

  man’s ability to shape, 65

  as one single catastrophe, 30–31

  as striving for utopia, 68

  History and Class Consciousness (Lukács), 20–21, 25–26, 44–45, 66

  Hitler, Adolf, 11, 56

  Hitler-Stalin Pact of 1939, 38

  Hölderlin, Friedrich, 37

  Honneth, Axel, 47

  Horkheimer, Max

  on critical theory, 18–19, 23, 115

  on culture industry, 6, 77, 81–82, 87

  on emotional experience as liberating, 11, 12, 29, 92–93

  personal life/career, 3, 10–12, 10, 17, 28, 84

  philosophical analysis, 11, 12, 24, 28, 48

  political critique, 7, 11, 45–46, 48, 84

  writings, 11, 23, 24, 28, 29, 45–46, 48, 51–58, 81, 92

  See also Dialectic of Enlightenment

  Human Smoke (Baker), 114

  Hume, David, 29, 54

  Huxley, Aldous, 74

  ideology

  Frankfurt School concern with, 2, 20, 25–28

  “free-floating intelligentsia,” 27–28

  individuality

  bureaucracy as end of, 5, 43, 48, 82

  as focus of critical theory, 2–3, 29, 32–33, 100

  loss in mass society, 5, 27, 49

  Institute for Social Research, 9, 28, 35

  See also Frankfurt School

  instrumental rationality

  in advanced industrial society, 106

  and capitalism, 28, 42, 47, 55

  critique by Frankfurt School, 2, 24, 28, 51–52, 53–56, 59, 64, 92

  and Nazism,
52, 61

  origins in Enlightenment, 53–59, 109

  Italy, 21, 59–60

  Japan, 60

  Jews, 58, 93

  See also anti-Semitism

  Kafka, Franz, 4, 16, 17, 64, 95

  Kandinsky, Wassily, 80

  Kant, Immanuel, 2, 11, 24, 29, 55, 95–96, 97–98

  Kautsky, Karl, 60

  Kellner, Douglas, 113

  Kirchheimer, Otto, 101

  Klee, Paul, 31

  Kluge, Alexander, 82

  Korsch, Karl, 44

  critique of Marxism, 22–23, 26

  as Western Marxist, 3, 9, 20, 21, 22

  writings of, 9, 22–23

  Kracauer, Siegfried, 26–27

  Krauss, Karl, 114

  Kuhn, Thomas, 107

  labor, division of, 4, 35, 40, 46, 105

  Lask, Emil, 43

  Le Bon, Gustave, 80

  the Left, 31, 51, 52, 86, 116

  See also New Left

  left-wing movements, 111

  Lenin, Vladimir, 28, 44, 60

  liberalism, 8, 45–46, 52, 56–58, 110

  Lisbon earthquake, 5

  literature

  critiques, 17, 27, 79, 95–96, 97

  expressionism debate, 66–67

  utopian, 74–75

  Lowenthal, Leo, 11, 27, 77

  Lukács, Georg

  expressionism debate, 66–67

  personal life/career, 43, 61, 65–66

  social/political critique, 43–44, 45, 61, 67, 78–79

  Soul and Form (Lukács), 79

  Theory of the Novel (Lukács), 43–44, 61

  and Western Marxism, 3, 20–21, 35, 45

  written work, 20–21, 25–26, 43–45, 61, 66, 79

  See also History and Class Consciousness

  Luxemburg, Rosa, 60

  Mannheim, Karl, 27

  Mann, Thomas, 16–17, 66, 115

  Marcuse, Herbert

  cultural critiques, 6, 69–74, 77, 86–87, 89–90

  Eros and Civilization (Marcuse), 69–74

  An Essay on Liberation (Marcuse), 29, 71, 90–91

  One-Dimensional Man (Marcuse), 14, 86–87, 88

  personal life/career, 3, 14, 84

  philosophical interpretations, 14, 29, 48

  political critique, 14–15, 35, 56, 85–86, 88, 89–91, 91–92, 101

  utopian vision, 14, 69–74, 90

  written work, 14, 29, 48, 69–74, 85–86, 90–92, 101

  Marxism

  on alienation and reification, 2, 35–36, 39–40, 97–98, 105

  on capitalism, 28, 40–43, 45

  on culture industry, 80

  and dialectic of freedom, 36, 37–43, 48

  as inspiration to Frankfurt School, 2–4, 3–4, 20–21, 26, 36, 104

 

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