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Critical theory
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Roots This school of thought emerged from the work of German theorists collectively known as The Frankfurt School. The roots of Critical Theory are directly centered in the creation of The Institute for Social Research and the social thinkers who promoted the Idealism of Karl Marx.
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Roots (cont.) This approach sought to revise Marx’s. Critique of capitalism and the idea that revolution was the best way to change the social and political structure since his death. The first president of the school was Carl Grundberg, who wanted Scientific Marxism.
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Roots (cont.) Max Horkheimer, the second president, wanted a more philosophical and less dogmatic approach which was open to diverse intellectual currents. The dilemma that the first generation of Critical Theorists had “to reconcile was Marx’s emancipatory dream with the stark reality of modern society as conceptualized by Max Weber.
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Roots (cont.) The school was restrained by Adolf Hitler and had its Jewish members exiled. School was relocated to Columbia university in 1934. The term Critical Theory was coined in 1937 In 1953 school had re-established in post Germany where they were still subject to attack in press and academia.
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Definition Critical theory offers a multidisciplinary approach to society, is subject to change but is rooted in the dialectical tradition of Marx and Hegel.
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Social Research Social research: description, explanation, critique, normative Link SR to progressive political agenda and imperative to reflect the ideology underlying SR. Disagree: research can be value-free
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The early Frankfurt School: core contepts Monistic materialism was inappropriate for understanding social process Promoting interdisciplinary as central to SR. Holistic approach or Holism: the whole can not be reducible to its component parts.
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The early Frankfurt School… (cont.) Rejection to methodological individualism: reducing the social to an aggregate of individual actions. Adorno: the Authoritarian Personality: the rise of National Socialism (NAZI) – the social structure, politics and economy of the Weimar Republic.
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The early Frankfurt School… (cont.) Culture Industrial: the economic forces dictated the content of the cultural products while these products were imposed on people; the cultural shifts and the spread of instrumental rationality in modern society.
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The early Frankfurt School… (cont.) Opposing a positivist conception of social research in applying the natural sciences to the social realm: searching for Law of law-like generalizations.
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The early Frankfurt School… (cont.) Accepted that positivism helped people to emancipate from metaphysics and theology but critiqued that positivism turned into a new form of totalitarianism: incapable of grasping its own limitations and of conceiving of other forms of knowledge acquisition. Positivism: reducing any knowledge to empirical type of Knge.
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The early Frankfurt School… (cont.) Positivist epistemology: instrumental rationality-means-end rationality- a central role of cost-benefit Substantive rationality: the ability to reflect on and assess the objectives that are being pursued.
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The early Frankfurt School… (cont.) Rationalization: the increasing use of a methodical and efficient approach. Operating effectively but not to reflect on what trying to achieve.
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The early Frankfurt School… (cont.) Positivist: SR as a tool for restoring social order and avoiding malfunctions of the system. Auguste Comte’s dictum: “to know in order to predict and to predict in order to control”
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The early Frankfurt School… (cont.) Theory and reality theories are necessary to make sense of the “scattered facts”. acknowledgement of existence of a reality beneath the surface level. Promoting SR to uncover the underlying mechanisms, structures or powers that affect the observable sphere, not just regularity conjunctions and perception of people.—affinity with Critical Realism.
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The early Frankfurt School… (cont.) Value-neutrality Positivist: the values of research should not interfere with the research process. CT: it is wrong to assume there can be distinction between facts and values. ….Research is a human activity and is embedded in a normative framework. It is wrong to conceive of methods and theories as technical devices for studying the social world because in themselves they imply and reinforce particular values. …ex. Functionalist explanations are not simply explanations: they also assume and reinforce the view that a cohesive, conflict-free and well-integrated society is desirable. The stance of value-neutrality is in itself a normative position.
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The early Frankfurt School… (cont.) Research purposes Positivism: description and explanation. CT: making a judgement and take a position. : how self-emancipation has been impeded and how it can be achieved. … not take a position means reinforcing the existing order; the obsession with representing reality erodes our imaginative capabilities. … reduction of the role of political imaginary. …is subordinated to the tyranny of sociological facts.
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The early Frankfurt School… (cont.) Research methods Methods should not dictate the research agenda. People are able to reflect on their surrounding and regularly act on the basis of the knowledge gained. Statistical analysis fails to do full justice to this complexity. It reduces complexity to the false homogeneity of the law of large numbers.
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The second generation: Jurgen Habermas Background Born in Gummersbach in 1929 Grew up during Nazi regime and WWII: Two influences that have a profound effect on his thinking and writings Studied philosophy at Gottingen, Zurich, and Bonn, where he earned his doctorate in 1954 In 1964 he became a professor of philosophy at Frankfurt Perhaps most well known of second generation of critical theorists He was influenced by the works of Marx, Weber, and the early members of the Frankfurt School Writings are steeped in the German tradition
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Concepts of Jurgen Habermas “The Tasks of a Critical Theory: six themes: 1.The Forms of Integration in Postliberal Societies: Whether in a democracy or totalitarian regimes 2.Family Socialization and Ego Development: The structural change of the bourgeois nuclear family and the weakening of the authoritarian position of the father 3.Mass Media and Mass Culture: The development of a culture industry for the manipulative control of consciousness
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Concepts..(cont.) 4 The Social Psychology behind Cessation of Protest: Political consciousness of workers and employees 5. The Theory of Art: The arts as the preferred object of an ideology 6. The Critique of Positivisim and Science: Science as a tool of the bourgeoisie
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Concepts..(cont.) His critical theory was inspired by classical Greek and German philosophy, which stressed the inseparability of truth and virtue, of facts and values, and of theory and practice Wanted a society where people are free to assemble and communicate openly
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Concepts..(cont.) Communication and understanding of language are the keys to understanding and comprehending knowledge. Described the ideal speech situation as one that is un-coerced, free for all people, and in which all people are treated equally.
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Concepts..(cont.) Communication theory Concerned with reformulating Marxian theory in the light of twentieth-century social changes Expands Marx’s conception of humanity by adding language to work as a distinct feature of species-being A theory cannot be tied to concrete ideals of human life. Instead, it must orient itself to the range of learning processes that are opened at any given time.
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Concepts..(cont.) The use of language as a significant aspect of human development led Habermas to concentrate on how undistorted communication might lay the foundation for the emancipation of individuals. Distorted communication is similar to Marx’s false consciousness
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Concepts..(cont.) Use of undistorted communication reveals the influence of Freudian psychoanalysis on his communication theory. Argued that individual’s life worlds are influenced by constant interaction with others and with society’s social structures.
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Rationality and Modernity Critical of Western industrial democracies for their reduction of the human world to some form of economic efficiency. Believed that rationality-the ability to think logically and analytically-is more than a strategic calculation of how to achieve some chosen end; it is a form of communicative action. Rational behavior serves the individual’s best interest and is a key ingredient in understanding others during social behavior.
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Rationality and Modernity (cont.) The concepts of rationality and modernity come together in his examination of the life world. Also critical of scientism-identifying knowledge with science-because of its relation to positivism. Believed that critical theory should be a critique of knowledge, opposed positivism because it attempted to objective knowledge.
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conclusion Critical theory is generally about the role of power in social relations Contemporary critical theorists have increasingly turned their attention to the media and other forms of entertainment in their examination of modern culture Critical theory cannot be characterized by a particular set of methodological techniques and theoretical propositions; however, it is still a coherent approach to the social world that is separate from other types of sociology and Marxism
