scholarly journals Levinas, Adorno, and the Light of Redemption: Notes on a Critical Eschatology

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-62
Author(s):  
Dylan Shaul ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Edmund Husserl ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
The Face ◽  
Critical Phenomenology ◽  
Moral Dimensions ◽  
Political Economic

It seems natural to suppose that the burgeoning field of critical phenomenology would come to bear at least some affinities or resemblances (whether implicitly or explicitly) to critical theory, insofar as both are deeply concerned with directing a rigorous critical eye towards the most pressing political, economic, cultural, and social issues of our time. Yet critical theory has also had its share of critics of phenomenology itself, not least of which was the foremost member of the first-generation Frankfurt School critical theorists, Theodor W. Adorno. Adorno’s critique of phenomenology was, for historical reasons, confined to Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger, and might be concisely put as follows: for Adorno, classical phenomenology is insufficiently critical towards contemporary realities of oppression and domination (an insufficiency variously attributed to an alleged pernicious idealism, solipsism, methodological individualism, descriptivism, or ahistoricism in classical phenomenology). On this count, critical phenomenologists today may very well agree—at least to the point of affirming that phenomenology’s critical potential remained largely “untapped” in its classical formulations. However, in a twist of historical fate, Adorno failed to engage with a contemporaneous phenomenologist with whom he perhaps had more in common than anyone else: Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas himself was also notably critical of Husserl and Heidegger (while of course also being enormously indebted to them), for reasons not altogether dissimilar to Adorno’s. For Levinas, phenomenology had hitherto neglected the fundamental ethical or moral dimensions of experience—in particular our ethical responsibility towards the Other in the face of the manifold evils and injustices of the world. What might Adorno have thought of Levinas’s work, and Levinas of Adorno’s? What might they have learned from one another? And how might this exchange have affected the trajectories of critical theory, phenomenology, or critical phenomenology?

scholarly journals Negative dialectic and linguistic turn: The actuality of Adorno’s concept of the conflict nature of modern societies

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-52
Author(s):  
Marjan Ivkovic
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Linguistic Turn ◽  
Dead End ◽  
Negative Dialectic ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Crucial Characteristic

The author attempts at questioning Habermas? and Honneth?s claim that the linguistic turn within Critical Theory of society represents a way out of the ?dead end? of the first generation of Frankfurt School theorists, who were unable to formulate an action-theoretic understanding of social conflicts. By presenting a view that Adorno, in his ?Negative dialectic?, develops an insight into a crucial characteristic of the conflict nature of modern societies, which eludes the lingustic-pragmatist Critical Theory, the author tries to defend and reactualize Adorno?s perspective. The paper analyzes some key aspects of the original idea of Critical Theory, and the ?negativistic turn? that Adorno and Horkheimer made with the writing of ?Dialectic of Enlightenment?. Having considered the central arguments of the ?Negative Dialectic?, the author presents his understanding of Adorno?s concept of social conflict, which is then being contrasted with Habermas? understanding of social conflict, formulated in terms of a systemic colonization of the lifeworld. Pointing out the weaknesses of Habermas? concept, the author aims at sharpening the image of the conflict nature of modern societies that Adorno sketches, concluding that his perspective is able to question the framework of intersubjectivity that Habermas and Honneth take for granted.

Illusion and Non-Identity Thinking in Nietzsche’s Critical Theory

2021 ◽  
pp. 089692052110563
Author(s):  
Vasilis Grollios
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Mass Culture ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Core Values ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
The Core ◽  
Identity Thinking ◽  
Radical Character

The paper attempts to bring to the fore the radical character of Nietzsche’s critical theory. It argues that behind Nietzsche’s consideration of suffering lies both a critique of one-dimensional mass culture and fetishism, and a theory of alienation that is much closer to Marx’s critique of alienation in capitalism than is usually believed. Uniquely, it will also support the idea that Nietzsche holds a theory of a dialectics between content and form, that is of non-identity thinking, very similar to that of the first generation of the Frankfurt School, and will attempt to connect it to an attempt to doubt the core values sustaining capitalism.

Critical Theory and Feeling

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Mussell
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
The Face ◽  
New Perspective

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.

scholarly journals Towards a constructive critical geopolitics – Inspirations from the Frankfurt School of critical theory

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veit Bachmann ◽  
Sami Moisio
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Critical Geopolitics ◽  
Peace Research ◽  
Societal Role

This paper seeks to enrich the scholarly potential and further develop the societal role of critical geopolitical scholarship. In particular, we elaborate on some of the challenges of what we call a ‘constructive critical geopolitics’. This is done through a selective inquiry into some of the key insights of the first generation of Frankfurt School critical theory, in particular as regards its reflections on political action and public engagement. We argue that incorporating some of the central tenets of critical theory into critical geopolitics has important implications for the subdiscipline – theoretically, empirically and as regards its applied/constructive role in society. Our argument seeks to contribute to the inclusion of constructive critical geopolitical analysis alongside the focus on thorough deconstruction of hegemonic knowledge productions, power relations and systems of exclusion. More concretely, drawing on critical theory as well as on geographic feminist and peace research, we call for more explicit normative positioning in critical geopolitical scholarship and suggest that we embrace the complexity of the geopolitical phenomena we study and, in so doing, to consider both their progressive and regressive aspects. We use our interest in processes of European (dis)integration, and the Brexit vote in particular, to highlight the need to further develop such multiperspectival analysis on highly complex and multifaceted geopolitical processes, such as European (dis)integration.

Towards a sociology of global morals with an ‘emancipatory intent’

2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. 135-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW LINKLATER
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
Physical Suffering ◽  
Simone Weil ◽  
Biological Legacy ◽  
Global Solidarity

ABSTRACTFirst generation Frankfurt School critical theorists argued that global solidarity was possible because human beings have similar vulnerabilities to mental and physical suffering. This approach to solidarity remains significant for any discussion of the ethical aspirations of critical theory. It also has ramifications for efforts to develop a sociological approach to global moral codes which is influenced by the idea of an emancipatory social theory. Informed by certain themes which were developed by Simone Weil, this article draws on the writings of Fromm, Horkheimer, Adorno and Elias to consider how a sociology of international moral codes can be developed. One of the aims of this project is to consider how far global moralities have developed forms of solidarity around the recognition of shared vulnerabilities to mental and physical suffering which are part of the species’ biological legacy.

Psychoanalysis and Critical Theory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordana Jovanović
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Sociocultural Perspective ◽  
The Core ◽  
Mediating Factors ◽  
Conditio Humana ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cultural Shifts

The relationship between psychoanalysis and Critical Theory (the Frankfurt School), contrary to dominant interpretations, is examined from a sociocultural perspective. Psychoanalysis addressed the sociopolitical issues of its time, including cultural shifts, war, and the cultural conditio humana in general. Beyond that, and more importantly, it is argued that the core psychoanalytic concepts, including drive itself, can be understood as a structure open to social co-construction. Such an interpretation of psychoanalysis can provide a link to Critical Theory of society. First, both sociopolitical and theoretical conditions in the 1920s and 1930s merit analysis under which members of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research referred to Freud’s psychoanalysis. A theory was needed that would examine a missing point in Marxist interpretations, which the Institute adopted as its political and theoretical framework. What was missing was a place for subjective mediating factors, especially important among which were those generated by drives and those that operated unconsciously. The views on psychoanalysis and its role in the first generation of Critical Theory are analyzed, particularly the views of Horkheimer, Adorno, Fromm, and, most extensively, Marcuse, given the fact that Freud’s psychoanalysis had a central role in his thought. Finally, questions regarding the contemporary relevance of psychoanalysis and Critical Theory under new sociocultural conditions in the 21st century are raised.

scholarly journals Critical theory and the question of technology: The Frankfurt School revisited

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 072551362110020
Author(s):  
Gerard Delanty ◽  
Neal Harris
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Substantive Theory ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
The Core ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Historical Developments

Unlike the first generation of critical theorists, contemporary critical theory has largely ignored technology. This is to the detriment of a critical theory of society – technology is now a central feature of our daily lives and integral to the contemporary form of capitalism. Rather than seek to rescue the first generation’s substantive theory of technology, which has been partly outmoded by historical developments, the approach adopted in this article is to engage with today’s technology through the conceptual apparatus offered by the early Frankfurt School. This rationale is guided by the conviction that the core ideas of critical theory still offer a sound basis for assessing the nature of technology today. Through a reconstruction and engagement with some of the core concepts of first-generation critical theory, as well as the work of Bernard Stiegler and Andrew Feenberg, we can arrive at a more robust theory of technology, capable of critically interrogating the role of technology in contemporary society.

Emmanuel Lévinas (1906–1995)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah Aaron Rosenblum
Keyword(s):  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Edmund Husserl ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
French Army ◽  
Ethical Philosophy ◽  
Cultural Worldview ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ontological Analysis

Emmanuel Lévinas was a French philosopher of Jewish–Lithuanian origins who drew strongly on German phenomenology in his investigations of intentionality, subjectivity, and ethics. An officer in the French army, he spent much of WWII a prisoner of war. His wife and daughter survived the war in hiding; the Nazis killed most of his family remaining in Lithuania. In the 1930s, Lévinas translated Edmund Husserl and helped introduce phenomenology into France. He is most recognized for his ethical philosophy, simultaneously an extension and critique of his teacher Martin Heidegger’s ontological analysis. Lévinas argued that the infinity of the "transcendent other" is exemplified by the face-to-face encounter: the "mundane" meaning of our historical, cultural worldview "is disturbed and jostled by another presence." This other shatters the Cartesian finitude of the self, disclosing the priority of ethics over ontology and epistemology (a priority that is Nietzsche’s contribution to existentialism more broadly). Responsibility to the other founds the subject, rather than vice-versa. Via extensive Talmudic study, he came to believe that Judaism offered a privileged access to this secular truth. His two major works are Totality and Infinity: An Essay in Exteriority (1961) and Otherwise than Being, or Beyond Essence (1974).

The History and Fulfilment of Western Rationality: Martin Jay’s The Eclipse of Reason

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-103
Author(s):  
Robert Doran
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Review Essay ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interpretative Approach

Abstract This review-essay examines Martin Jay’s The Eclipse of Reason: On Late Critical Theory with a view toward understanding the stakes of its interpretative approach to intellectual history. I show how Jay's book aims to provide much more than a mere history of reason (although it does this admirably), for it seeks to legitimate and resuscitate an idea of reason in the face of more than one hundred years of anti-rationalist thought. I contend that Jay offers Habermas’s intersubjective rationality (“late Critical Theory”) as both an alternative to, but also in some sense a continuation of, the dominant forms of subjectivist and objectivist rationality Jay documents in his book. According to the logic of Jay’s account, then, Habermas represents in some sense the fulfillment of the history of Western rationality. My only critique of an otherwise excellent and fascinating study is that Jay’s Frankfurt School-centric narrative effectively inhibits a larger discussion of Habermas’s relevance to recent and current debates about the direction of philosophy. An elaboration specifically of the post-structuralist critique of reason would have greatly enhanced our understanding of the place of "late Critical Theory" in the intellectual landscape of our time.

Marcuse and Habermas's Political Ideas in English

2019 ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Asaad Abdullwahab AbdulKarim ◽  
Waleed Massaher Hamad ◽  
Salah Ibrahim Hamadi
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Important Impact

Abstract     The Frankfurt School is characterized by its critical nature and it is the result of the Marxist socialist thought as it contributed to the development of the German thought in particular and the Western thought in general through important ideas put forward by a number of pioneers in the various generations of the school and most notably through the leading pioneer in the first generation, Marcuse, and the leading pioneer of the second  generation, Habermas, whose political ideas had an important impact on global thinking and later became the basis of the attic of many critical ideas. In spite of the belief of the school members in the idea of the criticism of power and community, each had his own ideas that distinguish him from the others.

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