A Note on Habermas

This course will chart the nebulous notion of "critical theory" as it relates to the Frankfurt School of Social Research (~1923-1970). Beginning as an interdisciplinary Marxist reading group (in 1923), the Institute metamorphosed in relation to the catastrophes of the 20 th century, utilizing crisis and the experience of exile as a means to critically renew philosophy. Today, the School's notion of critical theory has become ubiquitous, encompassing a vast assemblage of social theory. Focusing on the "first generation" of Frankfurt School thinkers (1923-1970), this course will explore the complex origins of critical social theory by way of an examination of the writings of

Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, 2019

SAGE Publications, 2015

The aim of this study is to discern intersections between the intellectual path of the young Habermas and the issues addressed by the Positivismusstreit, the dispute between Popper and Adorno about methodology in the social sciences. I will present two perspectives, focusing on different temporal moments and interpretative problems. First, I will investigate the young Habermas’ relationship to the intellectual tradition of the Frankfurt School: his views on philosophy and the social sciences, normative bases of critical theory and political attitudes. Second, I will reconstruct Habermas’ contemplation of the Positivismusstreit, in light of his social scientific research programme in the 1960s. The thesis supported is that Habermas developed a position diverging from those of Adorno and Horkheimer, and that his position reasserted the agenda of the ‘first critical theory’. This article highlight the discontinuity between the first and the second generation of the Frankfurt School, the constructive openness to other philosophical and sociological traditions, as well as the aporias of a theory of knowledge not yet oriented towards the programme of reconstructive sciences

Theory and Society, 1987

History of European Ideas, 1983

Critical theory is a project of revisionist Marxism envisioned to consider the emancipation of individuals from hegemonic power in post-Enlightenment society. Aside from a select handful of consistent themes and concerns shared among the key fi gures of critical theory, there are some crucial distinctions between the models employed by different theorists. Within the fi eld of critical theory there are disparate views regarding the debate between idealism and realism, as well as drastically confl icting views regarding the application of traditional philosophy, hermeneutics, phenomenology, positivism and pragmatism. Due to the lack of a single critical theory, the most uniting aspect of the fi eld can be thought to be what it opposes rather than what it stands for. Critical theory aims to redirect traditional agencystructure debates by suggesting that the actions, beliefs and motivations of individuals are subject to infl uences that can be invisible. Yet the uniting element of critical theory has less to do with a question or a subject than with a methodology of critique that demands the examination of social life, with the intention of resolving inconsistencies and distortions of knowledge.

Comparative Literature Studies, 2005

Journal of Social and Political Philosophy, 2022

"Imagination is excess, is that which could never be contained by the prison, that which will always exceed it." - Jackie Wang, Carceral Capitalism (Wang 2018: 316)