Marxism and Critical Theory

GV4G7 MARX AND MARXISM

Overview
Where does critical theory come from?
Traditional and critical theory
Critique and emancipation
The 1st generation: the critique of the Enlightenment
Some difficulties
The 2nd generation: the theory of communicative action
Some difficulties
The 3d (and 4th?) generation: relations of justification
Conclusion

What is critical theory?

Philosophical sources: Enlightenment, Marxism
Context: Frankfurt Institut fuer Sozialforschung

(1930 ongoing)
Development:

1st generation: Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse

2nd generation: Juergen Habermas
3d and 4th generation: Axel Honneth, Rainer Forst

Traditional and critical theory

(Horkheimer 1937)

What is theory?

A systematic body of propositions seeking to capture aspects of reality (natural and social)
Order is created through simplification/elimination of contradictions

What is traditional theory?

Division of labour
Isolation from the rest of society
Neglect of mode of production that allows a particular social development and of the institutions
that make it possible

What is critical theory?

A

theory that has society itself for object

A theory that challenges the separation between individual and society
A theory that reflects on the social role of the theorist and his general role in society

Critique and emancipation

Critical theory does not aim at giving an account of a

perfect society
Critical theory aims at emancipation of human beings

a) by highlighting contradictions in (commercial)

society = diagnostic task
b) by seeking to identify groups/agents victims of
oppression and domination = diagnostic task
c) by seeking to overcome that oppression and allow
communal satisfaction of needs = remedial task

1st generation: The critique of the Enlightenment

Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse
Tension between diagnostic and remedial task

The role of reason

Reason as remedy and evil

Reason as the ability to master the world

Instrumental rationality (Enlightenment)
Capitalist production and commodification in knowledge/cultural industry that produces needs and desires

Some difficulties
Disappearance of remedial task

(either reason is not really evil, or what it achieves

cannot be trusted)
Encourages complacency and fails to guide political

action
Lacks normative foundation

2nd generation
The theory of communicative action
2nd generation (Juergen Habermas)
Transformative potential of democratic institutions and

more optimistic account of reason

Problem of normative foundations resolved through

communicative action (against relativism/metaphysics)

Presupposition of a shared world

Truth as anticipation of consensus of those reflecting on it
Expectation of rationality of actors involved in discourse

Some objections
What is critical in this project?

How is it de-transcendentalized?

How does it cope with non-ideal discursive

circumstances?

3d (and 4th?) generation

The role of the social and relations of justification
Emphasis on social relations and conflicts as expressive of a

moral grammar revealed in the struggle for recognition (Axel

Honneth)
Basis for the claim is the right to justification against arbitrary

uses of power: generality and reciprocity (both transcendental

and historical) (Rainer Forst)
Critical theory is the attempt to bridge between the

institutionalised justifications and the justifications upheld

through norms of generality and reciprocity = critique of the
relations of justification

Conclusion

Critical theory has undergone several important

transformations. What remained constant is the
commitment to think about normative questions in
connection to the critique of society. What is still a
tension is the issue of normativity and the
presuppositions one deploys when engaging with
critical work.

Seminar activity 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-njxKF8CkoU

Seminar activity 2
Gergy Luksc, The Destruction of Reason, (1962)
A considerable part of the leading German
intelligentsia, including Adorno, have taken up
residence in the Grand Hotel Abyss a beautiful
hotel, equipped with every comfort, on the edge of an
abyss, of nothingness, of absurdity. And the daily
contemplation of the abyss between excellent meals or
artistic entertainments, can only heighten the
enjoyment of the subtle comforts offered.