Critical Theory and/as Political Philosophy

2020 ◽  
pp. 267-296
Author(s):  
Jean-Philippe Deranty
2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (4) ◽  
pp. 314-328
Author(s):  
Regina Kreide

AbstractOver the last years, the debate over global justice has moved beyond the divide between statist and cosmopolitan, as well as ideal and non-ideal approaches. Rather, a turn to empirical realities has taken place, claiming that normative political philosophy and theory need to address empirical facts about global poverty and wealth. The talk argues that some aspects of the earlier “Critical Theory” and its notions of negativity, praxis, and communicative power allow for a non-empiristic link between normative theory and a well-informed social science analysis that is based on experienced injustice. The analysis of border politics and housing politics will serve as an example for a critical theory of global injustice that addresses regressive as well as emancipative developments in society.


Dialogue ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. Cooper

The author struggles to come to grips here with the philosophical complexities and personal tragedies that disorient us when we reflect on the great and pervasive inequalities in human societies. His egalitarianism is radical in denying the justice of the inequalities that liberals like Rawls would countenance, and in denying that justice and capitalism are compatible. Nielsen displays a masterly knowledge of the literature of social justice, especially that which bears on Rawls's A Theory of Justice and Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia, the celebrated philosophical flagships of liberalism and conservatism respectively; this feature of the book should be useful for advanced students of social and political philosophy who need to acquire a sense for the texture of contemporary argument in the field. The thicket of sturdy arguments in Equality and Liberty should convince Rawlsians to accept many tenets of Nielsen's radical egalitarianism, or else to re-examine their thinking about social justice. And the extended critique of Anarchy, State and Utopia should persuade Nozickians of the need for “a reasonably sophisticated political sociology and a sound critical theory of society” if one is to philosophize adequately about social justice (5). Many will find this critique the most valuable part of the book.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-55
Author(s):  
Alessandro Ferrara

InRousseau and Critical Theory, Alessandro Ferrara argues that among the modern philosophers who have shaped the world we inhabit, Rousseau is the one to whom we owe the idea that identity can be a source of normativity (moral and political) and that an identity’s potential for playing such a role rests on its capacity for being authentic. This normative idea of authenticity brings unity to Rousseau’s reflections on the negative effects of the social order, on the just political order, on education, and more generally, on ethics. It is also shown to contain important teachings for contemporary Critical Theory, contemporary views of self-constitution (Korsgaard, Frankfurt and Larmore), and contemporary political philosophy.


Author(s):  
Rafael Cejudo Córdoba y Ramón Román Alcalá

ResumenDado que George Santayana mostró simpatía hacia regímenes no democráticos y hay una faceta escéptica en su filosofía, una cuestión ambigua es la de su auténtica ideología política. Para responderla hay que abordar la sugerente teoría crítica de las ideologías que esbozó en su Dominations and Powers, y tener en cuenta su concepción de la filosofía política. Como resultado relativizamos su simpatía hacia regímenes no democráticos, pero al mismo tiempo señalamos las debilidades de su posición política personal así como las ventajas y límites de su doctrina de las ideologías.Palabras claveFilosofía política, liberalismo, poder, virtud políticaAbstractAs George Santayana showed sympathy to non-democratic regimes and there is a skeptical side in his philosophy, the question of which was his real political ideology becomes elusive. To answer it we should turn to the suggestive critical theory of ideologies he outlined in his Dominations and Powers, and take into account his conception of political philosophy. As a result, we attenuate his sympathy to non-democratic regimes but we also point out the flaws of his personal political position as well as the pros and cons of his doctrine of ideologies.KeywordsPolitical philosophy, liberalism, power, political virtue.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Freyenhagen

In this paper, I would like to take up one proposal that I touch on as part of the longer paper delivered at the SPT conference on Critical Theory and the Concept of Social Pathology. The proposal is an analytic grid for characterising social pathologies, particularly in thelight of the conceptualisations of this idea specified within the Frankfurt School CriticalTheory tradition.Let me first summarise briefly the longer paper. I present some general features of the idea of social pathology (see below), and suggest that this idea can set FrankfurtSchool Critical Theory apart from mainstream liberal approaches – notably, in virtue of the specifically ethical register it involves (rather than a justice-based one dominant incontemporary liberalism) and the interdisciplinary approach it calls for (which marks a contrast to the relatively stark division between normative theorising and the social sciences characteristic of much of political philosophy today). I criticise the way Habermas and Honneth transform the early Frankfurt School conceptualisations of this idea by tying itto their respective models of functional differentiation of society.


2021 ◽  
pp. 43-48
Author(s):  
Richard Kearney ◽  
Melissa Fitzpatrick

This chapter looks at critical debates on religious hospitality-as-translation in contemporary political philosophy—notably in critical theory and Jürgen Habermas. Interestingly, Jürgen Habermas, Jacques Derrida, and Joseph Ratzinger all agree with Ricoeur on the central need for “hospitality” in our modern political discourse. While they speak from different perspectives—Habermas, secular; Derrida, Messianic; Ratzinger, Catholic—they all concur that hospitality offers a radical alternative, however complicated, to the infamous friend-enemy opposition made intellectually current by Samuel Huntington after 9/11. After analysing key aspects of these debates, the chapter ends by addressing the difficulties that arise in regard to Habermas’s model of secular hospitality to religion.


Author(s):  
Simon Mussell

The book provides a new perspective on the early work of the Frankfurt School, by focusing on the vital role that affect and feeling play in the development of critical theory. Building on contemporary theories of affect, the author argues that any renewal of critical theory today must have an affective politics at its core. If one’s aim is to effectively theorize, criticize, and ultimately transform existing social relations, then a strictly rationalist model of political thought remains inadequate. In many respects, this flies in the face of predominant forms of political philosophy, which have long upheld reason and rationality as sole proprietors of political legitimacy. Critical theory and feeling shows how the work of the early Frankfurt School offers a dynamic and necessary corrective to the excesses of formalized reason. Studying a range of themes – from melancholia, unhappiness, and hope, to mimesis, affect, and objects – this book provides a radical rethinking of critical theory for our times.


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