scholarly journals Revisionist philosophy of architecture: Fundamental dispositives

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-135
Author(s):  
Miško Šuvaković
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
Architecture Theory

The discussion points to the issue of defining and re-defining the notion of the "critical theory". The notion of critical theory has been considered since the introduction of the notion at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt until the modern, postmodern and contemporary theories of critical and decentering of the critical. The notion of critical theory is associated with the problem of politicization of architecture and urbanism. It is pointed to the case of critical theory of the Frankfurt circle. Particular attention is paid to the art/architecture theory of Theodor Adorno and to the theory of architecture and urbanism of Walter Benjamin. Adorno's critique of architectural functionalism has been considered. It is discussed about methodological approach to Benjamin's analysis and the debate on Paris as metropolis. The aim of the discussion is to indicate to transformations and modalities of critical theory in modernism, post-structuralism, postmodernism and contemporary global neoliberalism.

Paul and Philosophy

2020 ◽  
pp. 52-99
Author(s):  
Ole Jakob Løland
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Conceptual Revolution

Taubes’s readings of Paul demonstrate a hermeneutical art of disagreement within the intellectual life of post-Holocaust Europe. Taubes is a reader who looks for intellectual enemies with whom he can achieve a true disagreement without dismissing their true insights, whether they are historical or philosophical. This hermeneutic is not unattached to Taubes’s Jewish background but reflects a Talmudic spirit inherent within Taubes’s idiosyncratic readings of Paul. Moreover, Taubes’s readings are attuned to nuances, ambivalences, and contradictions within Paul, as Taubes powerfully demonstrates in his exegesis of 1 Corinthians. With the help of Nietzsche’s polemical reading of this Pauline epistle, Taubes detects the instances where Paul’s doctrine of the cross revolutionizes ancient perceptions and passages that contain the power to neutralize this very same conceptual revolution. This results in Taubes’s image of a contradictory apostle, who can be used throughout history for various purposes. In Taubes’s case, Paul becomes a messianic thinker and part of Taubes’s efforts to establish a powerful synthesis of the insights of Walter Benjamin and Carl Schmitt—against what Taubes considers as the merely aesthetic tradition of “critical theory” in Theodor Adorno that remains indifferent to the historical struggles of the excluded.

1. The Frankfurt School

2017 ◽  
pp. 7-16
Author(s):  
Stephen Eric Bronner
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Herbert Marcuse ◽  
Think Tank ◽  
Erich Fromm ◽  
Max Horkheimer ◽  
History Of ◽  
Inner Circle

‘The Frankfurt School’ provides a brief history of the formation of the Frankfurt School, and biographies of prominent members. The Frankfurt School grew out of the Institute for Social Research, the first Marxist think tank. However, in 1930, under the directorship of Max Horkheimer, the organization moved to America to escape the Nazis, and began to concentrate on critical theory. Aside from Horkheimer, notable members of the Frankfurt School's inner circle included Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Theodor W. Adorno, and Jürgen Habermas. Each member of the inner circle was different, but they all shared the same concerns, and attempted to solve them through intellectual daring and experimentation.

scholarly journals O problema da pobreza de experiência na formação do professor: desafios da educação inclusiva

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Michelli Agra
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
General Education ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Bourgeois Society ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Formación Docente

O presente artigo tem por objetivo discutir os desafios da educação inclusiva, com base no conceito de experiência aplicado à problemática da formação do professor. Utiliza-se como referencial teórico-metodológico, a Teoria Crítica da Sociedade, com base nos autores Theodor Adorno e Walter Benjamin. As considerações giram em torno da argumentação das possíveis causas e efeitos do empobrecimento da experiência na sociedade burguesa capitalista, com a seguinte questão: ‘Para que viver experiências na formação de professor?’ No sentido que se procura expor, a experiência deixa marcas que passam a pertencer à subjetividade do indivíduo, além de potencializar a racionalidade e a autonomia. A educação inclusiva, por sua vez, revela a educação geral e pode contribuir para uma educação que propicie a resistência e a emancipação humana.Palavras-chave: Experiência; Formação do Professor; Educação Inclusiva. The problem of poverty of experience in teacher training: challenges of inclusive educationABSTRACTThis article aims to discuss the challenges of inclusive education, based on the concept of experience applied to the problem of teacher education. The Critical Theory of Society, based on the authors Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin was used as theoretical-methodological reference. Considerations revolve around arguing the possible causes and effects of the impoverishment of experience in capitalist bourgeois society, with the following question: 'Why live experiences in teacher training?' In the sense we seek to expose, experience leaves marks that pass to belong to the subjectivity of the individual, in addition to enhancing rationality and autonomy. Inclusive education, in turn, reveals general education and can contribute to an education that fosters resistance and human emancipation.Keywords: Experience; Teacher Training; Inclusive education. El problema de la pobreza de experiencia en la formación del profesor: desafíos de la educación inclusiva RESUMENEl presente artículo tiene como objetivo discutir los desafíos de la educación inclusiva, basándose en el concepto de experiencia aplicado a la problemática de la formación docente. Se utiliza como referencial teórico-metodológico, la Teoría Crítica de la Sociedad, basándose en autores como Theodor Adorno y Walter Benjamin. Las consideraciones giran alrededor de la argumentación de las posibles causas y efectos del empobrecimiento de la experiencia en la sociedad burguesa capitalista, con la siguiente cuestión: ¿Para qué vivir experiencias en la experiencia en la formación docente? En el sentido en que se busca exponer, la experiencia deja señas que pertenecen a la subjetividad del individuo, además de potenciar la racionalidad y la autonomía. La educación inclusiva, a su vez, revela la educación general y puede contribuir para una educación que favorezca la resistencia y la emancipación humana.Palabras clave: Experiencia; Formación docente; Educación Inclusiva.

Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund (1903–69)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M. Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Social Research ◽  
New Work ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Instrumental Reason ◽  
Negative Dialectics ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
Identity Thinking

Philosopher, musicologist and social theorist, Theodor Adorno was the philosophical architect of the first generation of Critical Theory emanating from the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. Departing from the perspective of more orthodox Marxists, Adorno believed the twin dilemmas of modernity – injustice and nihilism – derived from the abstractive character of Enlightenment rationality. In consequence, he argued that the critique of political economy must give way to a critique of Enlightenment, instrumental reason. Identity thinking, as Adorno termed instrumental rationality, abstracts from the sensory, linguistic and social mediations which connect knowing subjects to objects known. In so doing, it represses what is contingent, sensuous and particular in persons and nature. Adorno’s method of negative dialectics was designed to rescue these elements from the claims of instrumental reason. Adorno conceded, however, that all this method could demonstrate was that an abstract concept did not exhaust its object. For a model of an alternative grammar of reason and cognition Adorno turned to the accomplishments of artistic modernism. There, where each new work tests and transforms the very idea of something being a work of art, Adorno saw a model for the kind of dynamic interdependence between mind and its objects that was required for a renewed conception of knowing and acting.

Archives of Critical Theory

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew N. Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Postwar Germany ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
Partial Representation ◽  
Institutional Challenges

This chapter turns to Institute for Social Research (or Frankfurt School) member Theodor Adorno as the partial representation of the experience of exile in terms of the ideology of positivism, which had damaged the very category of experience in general. Positivism and empiricism had reduced reality to a prosaic and administered calculus, the effect of which was embodied in the position of the exile when confronted with modernity. Moreover, as Adorno writes, “It is unmistakably clear to the intellectual from abroad that he will have to eradicate himself as an autonomous being if he hopes to achieve anything.” In postwar Germany, his critique of positivism would face new, mostly institutional challenges.

Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund (1903–69)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.M. Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Critical Theory ◽  
First Generation ◽  
Social Research ◽  
New Work ◽  
Abstract Concept ◽  
Instrumental Reason ◽  
Negative Dialectics ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
Identity Thinking

Philosopher, musicologist and social theorist, Theodor Adorno was the philosophical architect of the first generation of Critical Theory emanating from the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany. Departing from the perspective of more orthodox Marxists, Adorno believed the twin normative challenges of modernity – injustice and nihilism – derived from the abstractive character of Enlightenment rationality. In consequence, he argued that the critique of political economy must give way to a critique of Enlightenment, instrumental reason. Identity thinking, as Adorno termed instrumental rationality, abstracts from the sensory, linguistic and social mediations which connect knowing subjects to objects known. In so doing, it represses what is contingent, sensuous and particular in persons and nature. Adorno’s method of negative dialectics was designed to rescue these elements from the claims of instrumental reason. Adorno conceded, however, that all this method could demonstrate was that an abstract concept did not exhaust its object. For a model of an alternative grammar of reason and cognition Adorno turned to the accomplishments of artistic modernism. There, where each new work tests and transforms the very idea of something being a work of art, Adorno saw a model for the kind of dynamic interdependence between mind and its objects that was required for a renewed conception of knowing and acting.

scholarly journals The Dialectical Methods of Marshall McLuhan, Marxism, and Critical Theory

1996 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Grosswiler
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Technological Determinism ◽  
Marshall Mcluhan ◽  
Max Horkheimer ◽  
Dialectical Theory ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
Media Interaction ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Human Awareness

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to help reclaim McLuhan's media and social / historical theories for critical theory, arguing that McLuhan employed a form of dialectical theory containing basic elements of dialectics developed by Hegel, Marx, and, later, his contemporaries of the Frankfurt School. This essay will examine McLuhan's published writings for analysis of his dialectical methodology and compare his work closely with the work of Walter Benjamin, and the work of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, lines of inquiry paralleling Judith Stamps's Unthinking Modernity. The central argument is that McLuhan's method, like Marx's radical dialectical method, was not a mechanistic, technological determinism. Instead, McLuhan was mining the interstices of media interaction for openings that allow human awareness and autonomy. This study attempts to reclaim McLuhan by showing that his method was open-ended and processual, not only in his early work, but in the later and posthumous work as well. Résumé: Cet essai cherche à ramener au sein de la théorie critique les théories médiatiques et socio-historiques de McLuhan, en insistant sur le fait que la forme de la théorie dialectique qu'il emploie est basée sur les dialectiques élaborées par Hegel, Marx et plus tard par les contemporains de McLuhan, à savoir les membres de l'Ecole de Francfort. En se penchant sur les écrits publiés de McLuhan, cet essai analyse sa théorie dialectique et procède à une comparaison approfondie de ses oeuvres à celles de Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer et Theodor Adorno--une recherche qui nous rappelle Unthinking Modernity de Judith Stamps. L'argument principal est que la méthode de McLuhan, de même que la méthode dialectique radicale de Marx, ne représentait en aucun cas un déterminisme mécaniste et technologique. McLuhan examine plutôt les interstices de l'interaction des médias pour y trouver les ouvertures qui permettraient une conscience humaine et une autonomie plus grandes. Cette étude essaye de revendiquer l'importance des écrits de McLuhan en montrant que sa méthode était sans limites fixes et suivait un processus précis, non seulement dans ses premiers ouvrages, mais également dans son oeuvre mûre et dans ses publications posthumes.

Grand Illusion

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Karl Marx ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Richard Wagner ◽  
Giuseppe Verdi ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
Tristan Und Isolde ◽  
Giacomo Meyerbeer ◽  
History Of ◽  
Grand Opera ◽  
Philosophical Understanding

Grand Illusion is a new history of grand opera as an art of illusion facilitated by the introduction of gaslight illumination at the Académie Royale de Musique (Paris) in the 1820s. It contends that gas lighting and the technologies of illusion used in the theater after the 1820s spurred the development of a new lyrical art, attentive to the conditions of darkness and radiance, and inspired by the model of phantasmagoria. Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor Adorno have used the concept of phantasmagoria to arrive at a philosophical understanding of modern life as total spectacle, in which the appearance of things supplants their reality. The book argues that the Académie became an early laboratory for this historical process of commodification, for the transformation of opera into an audio-visual spectacle delivering dream-like images. It shows that this transformation began in Paris and then defined opera after the mid-century. In the hands of Giacomo Meyerbeer (Robert le diable, L’Africaine), Richard Wagner (Der fliegende Holländer, Lohengrin, and Tristan und Isolde), and Giuseppe Verdi (Aida), opera became an expanded form of phantasmagoria.

scholarly journals The Frankfurt School and the authoritarian personality: Balance sheet of an insight

Thesis Eleven ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 072551362110059
Author(s):  
Geoff Boucher
Keyword(s):  
Critical Theory ◽  
Balance Sheet ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
The Other ◽  
Authoritarian Personality ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Authoritarian Populism ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
School Research

Frankfurt School critical theory is perhaps the most significant theory of society to have developed directly from a research programme focused on the critique of political authoritarianism, as it manifested during the interwar decades of the 20th century. The Frankfurt School’s analysis of the persistent roots – and therefore the perennial nature – of what it describes as the ‘authoritarian personality’ remains influential in the analysis of authoritarian populism in the contemporary world, as evidenced by several recent studies. Yet the tendency in these studies is to reference the final formulation of the category, as expressed in Theodor Adorno and co-thinkers’ The Authoritarian Personality (1950), as if this were a theoretical readymade that can be unproblematically inserted into a measured assessment of the threat to democracy posed by current authoritarian trends. It is high time that the theoretical commitments and political stakes in the category of the authoritarian personality are re-evaluated, in light of the evolution of the Frankfurt School. In this paper, I review the classical theories of the authoritarian personality, arguing that two quite different versions of the theory – one characterological, the other psychodynamic – can be extracted from Frankfurt School research.

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