scholarly journals Tragedy, Modernity and Political Life

Society ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Universal Form ◽  
Political Reason ◽  
Political Rationality

Abstract What are the links between tragedy, politics and modernity? Diverse currents in social and critical theory have tackled this question; some arguing that modernity has itself a tragic structure insofar as its promises are undermined by their own realisation, others that the diversity of worldviews (the ‘warring Gods’ referred to by Max Weber) has tragic—because un-reconcilable—form. After briefly reviewing some of these issues, the paper looks more specifically at tragic structure in relation to (European) modernity and political reason. The French Terror has unique significance in this context, signalling as it does the failure of any kind of political rationality that seeks to take unmediated, universal form. The consequences of this failure are also, in a way, tragic in so far as they involve contradictions and irresolvable dilemmas of ongoing, everyday political existence. As a result—and perhaps this should itself be seen as much in terms of tragedy as triumphalism—our modernity condemns us to liberalism.

Crises sistêmicas e racionalização social como reificação: uma reconstrução da teoria social marxiana

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-75
Author(s):  
Daniel Valente Pedroso de Siqueira
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Communicative Action ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Marxian Theory ◽  
Step Over

Resumo: Como entender o desenvolvimento teórico e as mudanças históricosociais que impulsionaram a recuperação e alteração da teoria marxiana no século XX e como esta ainda se encontra atuante sobre nosso horizonte social contemporâneo? Fazendo uso da reconstrução crítica de Habermas, a recuperação se inicia com Weber, a passagem por Lukács e na recepção horkheimeriana-adorniana, que tanto influenciou a crítica social do século XX, o presente artigo busca apresentar uma possibilidade de leitura.  Palavras-chave: Teoria crítica. Reificação. Marx. Habermas. Modernidade.  Abstract: How can we understand the theoretical development and all the socialhistorical changes which drove the incoming recovery and the further alteration of the Marxian theory in the twentieth century and how is it still possible to assumes it on our contemporary societies? Recovering Habermas’s critical reconstruction, which starts with Weber, the next step over Lukács, and the Horkheimerian-Adornian theoretical reception, which has largely influenced twentieth social critic, the aim paper intents to show up a possible reading.  Keywords: Critical theory. Reification. Marx. Habermas. Modernity.  REFERÊNCIAS  ARAUTO, A. “Lukács’ Theory of Reification”. In: Telos, n. 11, 1972.  ARGÜELLO, K. O Ícaro da Modernidade: Direito e Política em Max Weber. São Paulo: Acadêmica, 1997.  BERNSTEIN, R. J. Habermas and Modernity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1991.  BRAATEN, J. Habermas’s Critical Theory of Society. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991.  COUTINHO, C. N. Lukács: A Ontologia e a Política. In: ANTUNES, R. & RÊGO, W. L. (orgs.). Lukács: Um Galileu no Século XX. São Paulo: Boitempo Editorial, 1996.  GIDDENS, A. “Reason without Revolution? Habermas’s Theorie des Kommunikativen Handelns”. In :BERNSTEIN, R. J. Habermas and Modernity. Cambridge, Massaschusetts : The MIT Press, 1991.  HABERMAS, J. “Does Philosophy still have a Purpose?”. In: HABERMAS, J. Philosophical-Political Profiles. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1983.  HABERMAS, J.  The Theory of Communicative Action, Volume I: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984.  HABERMAS, J.  Técnica e Ciência como “Ideologia”. São Paulo: Unesp, 2014.  HONNETH, A. The Critique of Power: Reflective Stages in a Critical Social Theory. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1997.  HORKHEIMER, M. Eclipse da Razão. São Paulo: Centauro Editora, 2002.  HORKHEIMER, M. Teoria Tradicional e Teoria Crítica. São Paulo: Abril Cultural, 1975.  HORKHEIMER, M.; ADORNO, T. W. Dialética do Esclarecimento. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Editor, 2006.  LEO MAAR, W. “A Reificação como Realidade Social: Práxis, Trabalho e Crítica Imanente em HCC”. In: ANTUNES, R. & RÊGO, W. L. (orgs). Lukács: Um Galileu no século XX. São Paulo: Boitempo Editorial, 1996.  LUKÁCS, G. História e Consciência de Classe: Estudos sobre a Dialética Marxista. São Paulo: WMF Martins Fontes, 2016.MARX, K. A Ideologia Alemã. São Paulo: Boitempo Editorial, 2007.  MARX, K. Grundrisse: Manuscritos Econômicos de 1857-1858 & Esboços da Crítica da Economia Política. São Paulo: Boitempo Editorial, 2011.  MELO, R. Marx e Habermas: Teoria Crítica e os Sentidos de Emancipação. São Paulo: Editora Saraiva, 2013.  MENEZES, A. B. N. T. Habermas e a Modernidade: Uma “Metacrítica da Razão Instrumental”. Natal: EDUFRN, 2009.  NETTO, J. P. “Lukács e o Marxismo Ocidental”. In: ANTUNES, R. & RÊGO, W. L. (orgs.). Lukács: Um Galileu no Século XX. São Paulo: Boitempo Editorial, 1996.  NOBRE, M. A Dialética Negativa de Theodor W. Adorno: A Ontologia do Estado Falso. São Paulo: Iluminuras/FAPESP, 1998.  NOBRE, M. A Teoria Crítica. Rio de Janeiro: Zahar Editor, 2004.  PINZANI, A. Habermas: Introdução. São Paulo: Artmed, 2004. REPA, L. A Transformação da Filosofia em Jürgen Habermas: Os Papéis de Reconstrução, Interpretação e Crítica. São Paulo: Editora Singular, 2008.  TEIXEIRA, M. Razão e Reificação: Um Estudo sobre Max Weber em “História e Consciência de Classe” de Georg Lukács. Campinas: Unicamp, Dissertação de mestrado, in mimeo, 2010.  WELLMER, A. “Reason, Utopia, and the Dialectic of Enlightenment”. In: BERNSTEIN, R. J. Habermas and Modernity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1991.  

Max Weber, critical theory, and the administered world

1981 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harvey C. Greisman ◽  
George Ritzer
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Max Weber

scholarly journals Time in International Relations Theory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Hom
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
English School ◽  
Power Shifts ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
Open Time

Temporal phenomena like power shifts, wars, and confounding events characterize international politics. Yet for decades academic international relations (IR) did not consider time worthy of research or reflection. Recently things have changed, especially in critical IR, where scholars developed numerous arguments about time’s political importance. However, none of that work pursued a synoptic account of time in IR theory. This chapter does so, using an ideal typology of closed and open time to understand realism, liberalism, constructivism, English School, feminism, Marxism, and critical theory. In each, tensions between open and closed time distinguish the theory from its competitors but also animate explanatory and normative debates among its proponents. The historically overlooked issue of time—our assumptions about it, visions of it, and claims about how it impacts politics—drives theoretical development across and within IR theories, which we can understand as attempts to time international political life.

Normativity and Power

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Forst
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Theories Of Justice ◽  
Normative Order ◽  
Over Time

Humans are justificatory beings—they offer, demand, and require justifications. The rules and institutions we follow rest on narratives that have evolved over time and, taken together, constitute a dynamic and tension-laden normative order. This book presents a new approach to critical theory. Each chapter reflects on the basic principles that guide our normative thinking. The book's argument goes beyond obsolete “ideal” and “realist” theories and shows how closely the concepts of normativity and power are interrelated, and how power rests on the capacity to influence, determine, and possibly restrict the space of justifications for outsiders. By combining insights from the disciplines of philosophy, history, and the social sciences, the book revaluates theories of justice, as well as of power, and provides the tools to conceptualize the “justification narratives” that form the bedrock of our social and political life.

Unmasking the ‘personality’ of the state—Max Weber, Staatsrechtslehre, and the modern state

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Kelly
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Conceptual Understanding ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Legal Positivist ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Comparative Manner

This chapter examines Max Weber's rejection of an idea central to nineteenth-century Staatsrechtslehre. This is the notion that the state itself is a ‘personality’. After outlining some of the main tenets of this tradition, the chapter seeks to show how Weber, borrowing from the work of Georg Jellinek in particular, retains a conceptual understanding of the state that stresses its position at the apex of political life. He nevertheless rejected the formalism of Jellinek's modified legal-positivist argument, which had resulted in his famous two-sided (one legal, the other political-sociological) account of the state. Weber insisted that the state could only be properly discussed as a relationship of domination, and in an empirical-sociological and comparative manner at that.

The Pacifist Tradition and Pacifism as Transformative and Critical Theory

Acorn ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-28
Author(s):  
Andrew Fiala ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Just War ◽  
Community Building ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Critical Social Theory ◽  
Critical Theories ◽  
Just War Tradition ◽  
Critical Social

Pacifism is often painted into a corner as an absolute rejection of all violence and war. Such a dogmatic and negative formulation of pacifism does leave us with pacifism as a morally problematic position. But pacifism is not best understood as a negative claim. Nor is pacifism best understood as a singular or monistic concept. Rather, there is a “pacifist tradition” that is grounded in an affirmative claim about the importance of nonviolence, love, community building, and peaceful conflict resolution. This more positive conception of pacifism aims to transform social and political life. When understood in this way, pacifism is a robust and useful critical social theory. This paper explores the philosophy of pacifism in an attempt to reconceptualize pacifism as a tradition of normative critical theory. The paper argues that pacifism ought to be understood on analogy with other critical theories—such as feminism; that pacifism should be understood in terms of the “pacifist tradition”—along lines familiar from interpretations of the “just war tradition”; and that pacifism should be seen as offering interesting themes and ideas that are worthy of philosophical attention.

scholarly journals Midcentury Modern: The Emergence of Stakeholders in Democratic Practice

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
KAVI JOSEPH ABRAHAM
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Rationality ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
Participatory Politics ◽  
Conditions Of Possibility ◽  
The 1960S

Since the 1960s, “the stakeholder,” or affected party, has emerged as a novel democratic subject whose participation in varied institutional sites—from universities to government agencies, corporate boardrooms to international organizations—is seen as necessary for the management of complex problems. However, few specifically attend to the stakeholder as a distinct political subject and consider its implications for democratic practice. This paper presents a genealogy of the stakeholder, documenting its appearance in corporate managerialism and US public administration and showing how racial mobilization, rapid technological progress, and the political rationality of systems thinking provided the conditions of possibility for its emergence. Though orienting democracy around stakeholders permits opportunities for participation in political life, I argue that this subject is predicated on a circumscribed form of participatory politics that erodes habits of discovering a common good, erases distinctions between individuals and corporate bodies, and amplifies the problem of expertise.

scholarly journals Days of the Cavemen? Adorno, Spengler, and the Anatomy of Caesarism

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-204
Author(s):  
Mikko Immanen
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
Authoritarian Populism

Abstract This article addresses the controversial question of Theodor W. Adorno’s debt to right-wing Zivilisationskritik by a close reading of his essay “Spengler after the Decline” (1950). The article shows that despite Adorno’s harsh polemics against Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West (1918, 1922), he sought to make Spengler’s analysis of Weimar Germany’s undemocratic tendencies—“Caesarism”—serve progressive ends. However, Adorno’s essay was not just an effort at “coming to terms with the past” in Adenauerian West Germany. Reading the essay’s original 1941 version together with Adorno’s correspondence with Max Horkheimer sheds light on Spengler as an overlooked key (next to Max Weber, Sigmund Freud, and Walter Benjamin) to their Dialectic of Enlightenment, written in 1941–44. Adorno’s daring effort to appropriate Spengler’s analysis of Caesarism makes Adorno’s critical theory an asset in understanding today’s authoritarian populism.

scholarly journals Paradoxes of Rationalisation: Openness and Control in Critical Theory and Luhmann's Systems Theory

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-148
Author(s):  
Jan Overwijk
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Sociotechnical Systems ◽  
Central Concept ◽  
Technical Reason ◽  
Political Reason ◽  
And Control

For the Critical Theory tradition of the Frankfurt School, rationalisation is a central concept that refers to the socio-cultural closure of capitalist modernity due to the proliferation of technical, ‘instrumental’ rationality at the expense of some form of political reason. This picture of rationalisation, however, hinges on a separation of technology and politics that is both empirically and philosophically problematic. This article aims to re-conceptualise the rationalisation thesis through a survey of research from science and technology studies and the conceptual framework of Niklas Luhmann's systems theory. It argues that rationalisation indeed exhibits a logic of closure, namely the ‘operational closure’ of sociotechnical systems of measurement, but that this closure in fact produces the historical logics of technical reason and, paradoxically, also generates spaces of critical-political openness. This opens up the theoretical and practical opportunity of connecting the politically just to the technically efficient.

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