3. Critical theory and modernism

The end of the nineteenth century witnessed the birth of an international avant-garde that focused upon alienation, standardization, and the liberation of the individual from constrictive social norms. Impressionists, Cubists, Expressionists, Futurists, Dadaists, Surrealists, and representatives from many other styles provided a blizzard of philosophical–aesthetic manifestos that blended political with cultural resistance to mass society. The Frankfurt School’s inner circle was sympathetic from the start; modernism provided a response to the ontology of false conditions and, indeed, an avant-garde opposition to mass culture provided inspiration and cohesion. ‘Critical theory and modernism’ explains how the unflinching support of modernism and experimental art by the Frankfurt School confirmed both its cultural radicalism and contempt for totalitarianism.

1. The Frankfurt School

‘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.

6. The utopian laboratory

‘The utopian laboratory’ explores the notions of aesthetics and utopia. Friedrich Schiller introduced aesthetics as a utopian response to society. The Frankfurt School said that art should not depict the wrongs of society, but rather should experiment with new forms that could elicit utopia. Ernst Bloch aggregated work from all over the globe into the ‘utopian laboratory’, while Herbert Marcuse contended that the modern world of scarcity was being artificially maintained, and psychological reconfiguration could end this repression. Both these views elicited vigorous criticism from other Frankfurt School members. The dream of utopia is an enduring one, but the dream of realising it is abstract and unreachable.

4. Alienation and reification

‘Alienation and reification’ explores the concepts of alienation and reification in Karl Marx's Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, and how this affected 20th century Western Marxism. Alienation is not a uniquely Marxist concept, but Marx defined it as an inability to grasp the workings of history and subject them to human control. In the capitalist system, alienation occurs through the lack of working class consciousness, and their transformation from people into objects—their reification. The Frankfurt School saw alienation and reification as philosophical and experiential problems, but believed that trying to remedy them in the current system was pointless, and a new framework was needed to cultivate autonomy.

2. A matter of method

‘A matter of method’ outlines how the aims and methods of the Frankfurt school changed. The Frankfurt School took its inspiration from the intellectual framework provided by Western Marxism with its emphasis on history, agency, and the dialectical method. Georg Lukács, Karl Korsch, Antonio Gramsci, and Ernst Bloch were leading representatives of this trend. Critical theory originally aimed to understand facts in a value-laden context, as traditional theory was neither neutral nor reflective. The Frankfurt School was sympathetic to communism, but as that political regime became totalitarian, the preservation of individuality became the central preoccupation of critical theory, along with eradicating social injustice and causes of unhappiness.

Introduction

Interdisciplinary and uniquely experimental in character, deeply skeptical of tradition and all absolute claims, critical theory was always concerned not merely with how things were, but how they might be and should be. This ethical imperative led its primary thinkers to develop a cluster of themes and a new critical method that transformed our understanding of society. The Introduction describes some of the many sources of critical theory, including Immanuel Kant, Hegel, Karl Marx, Karl Korsch, Georg Lukács, Theodor W. Adorno, Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin, Jürgen Habermas, and Max Horkheimer. The two ideas most commonly associated with critical theory are alienation and reification.

8. The great refusal

‘The great refusal’ outlines the resurgence in critical theory in young intellectuals during the 1970s. Activists in the 1960s saw critical theory in Marxist terms, but the outlook of the working class had become compromised, and revolutionary consciousness could only come from outside that group. The young rebels of the seventies did not embody the utopian sensibility critical theorists spoke of, but they did evince a deep appreciation of subjectivity. The Frankfurt School was always suspicious of organized politics. Young people had lessons to learn from totalitarian movements with their propaganda apparatus and their contempt for the individual. Affirming individuality was the best response to the totally administered society.

7. The happy consciousness

‘The happy consciousness’ explores how happiness precludes progress, and how this can be overcome. For Hegel and the Frankfurt School, conformism and loss of individuality mark the happy consciousness. Only true nonconformists, with an understanding of the constraints of freedom, and therefore an ‘unhappy consciousness’, can effect progress. The Frankfurt School’s members posed many criticisms of modern life and the culture industry. But the danger that advanced industrial society presents to the unhappy consciousness is perhaps the most telling. At stake is the substance of subjectivity and autonomy: the will and ability of the individual to resist external forces intent upon determining the meaning and experience of life.

10. Unfinished tasks

The Frankfurt School never really thought about the world beyond Europe, the Soviet Union, and the United States. But there exists a global totality in which the most basic principles of solidarity are under attack. Resistance calls for linking liberal cosmopolitan principles with economic class interests. Reinvigorated regulative ideals are necessary. Linkages between liberalism and socialism still need to be drawn; class ideals still await realization; the emancipatory heritage of the past still requires reclaiming; and individual autonomy still remains threatened by religion and authoritarianism. New perspectives in critical theory are required to cultivate transformative prospects within an increasingly global society and, in turn, this calls for subjecting critical theory to ongoing critical interrogation.

9. From resignation to renewal

‘From resignation to renewal’ examines where critical theory has gone wrong, and how it can reorient itself for the future. Critical theory was originally intended as an alternative to mainstream metaphysics and materialism. However, after the outbreak of World War II, the liberating alternatives vanished, and resistance became increasingly existential and arbitrary. The preoccupation of critical theorists with abstract preoccupations has left them open to ridicule. Max Horkheimer originally viewed critical theory as a public philosophy. To realise his goal, modern critical theorists must stop trying to express the inexpressible and instead offer practical solutions to the ways society stunts individuality.