
Contents
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Introduction: Frankfurt School Critical Theory Introduction: Frankfurt School Critical Theory
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1. What is a Critical Theory of Society? 1. What is a Critical Theory of Society?
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1.1 Traditional and Critical Theory 1.1 Traditional and Critical Theory
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1.2 The Practical Aims of Critical Theory 1.2 The Practical Aims of Critical Theory
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1.3 Critique and Criticism 1.3 Critique and Criticism
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1.4 Reason/Rationality 1.4 Reason/Rationality
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1.5 Marx and Lukács: Immanent Critique and the Rational Society 1.5 Marx and Lukács: Immanent Critique and the Rational Society
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1.6 Horkheimer's Vision of the Rational Society 1.6 Horkheimer's Vision of the Rational Society
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2. Critical Theory and Dialectic of Enlightenment 2. Critical Theory and Dialectic of Enlightenment
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2.1 The Critique of Instrumental Rationality 2.1 The Critique of Instrumental Rationality
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2.2 Reason and the Remedy in the Evil 2.2 Reason and the Remedy in the Evil
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3. The Politics of Critical Theory 3. The Politics of Critical Theory
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3.1 Adorno, Horkheimer, and the Absent Politics of Critical Theory 3.1 Adorno, Horkheimer, and the Absent Politics of Critical Theory
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3.2 Habermas and the Question of Politics 3.2 Habermas and the Question of Politics
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4. Morality and Critical Theory 4. Morality and Critical Theory
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4.1 The Problem of Normative Foundations 4.1 The Problem of Normative Foundations
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4.2 Habermas's Discourse Ethics and the Normative Foundations of Social Theory 4.2 Habermas's Discourse Ethics and the Normative Foundations of Social Theory
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18 Political, Moral, and Critical Theory: On the Practical Philosophy of the Frankfurt School
Get accessJames Gordon Finlayson, Department of Philosophy, University of Sussex.
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Published:02 September 2009
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Abstract
Critical theory is a multifarious and dynamic body of thought, and it is hard to make general statements about its relation to practical philosophy without shoehorning it into one-size-fits-all judgments. To avoid doing this, this article indicates wherever possible whose critical theory is at issue and at what phase in its development. The Frankfurt School critical theory is a particular kind of Gesellschaftskritik or social criticism, the practical aims of which are essential to and inseparable from it. Indeed, as distinct from social theory or sociology, critical theory is, in the eyes of its architects and practitioners, a kind of practice. Yet critical theory is still very much philosophy. Furthermore, critical theory from early on had an almost entirely negative view of instrumental reasoning. This raises the question which asks about the kind of practical upshot that critical theory can have, absent of all political, moral, and prudential considerations.
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