Critical Theory


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Critical Theory
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The Frankfurt School

• Associated with the Institute of Social Research
  at the University of Frankfurt in Germany in
  1923.
• Key Theorists Max Horkheimer (1895-1973)
  Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) Herbert Marcuse
  (1898-1979) and Erich Fromm (1900-1980)

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To the U.S.

• All of the key theorists came from middle class
  Jewish backgrounds. All fled Germany for America
  by the mid 1930s.
• Later Adorno and Horkheimer returend to Germany
  and re-established the Institute in 1949.
• Over time the group diverged.

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Understanding Critical Theory- The Centrality of
Class

• As a derivative of Marxism studies of class and
  class movements were central. In addition to the
  continuing changes wrought by industrialization
  and today post-industrialization (shift to
  service sector economy) that significantly
  impacted the standard of living of many.

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The Critiques of Critical Theory

• Criticisms of Marxian Theory
• Criticisms of Positivism
• Criticisms of Sociology
• Critique of Modern Society
• Critique of Culture

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Understanding Critical Theory

• Two Propositions
• 1) People are a product of the society in which
  they live. Hence this implies that their is no
  such thing as an objective fact that can be known
  outside of structure.
• 2) Intellectuals should not try to be objective
  and separate value judgments from their work

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Cultural Analysis

• Critical Theory applied theory to culture. It is
  a harbinger of Cultural Studies.

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Whats Different About Critical Theory

• The magpie approach of blending pieces for a
  range of theories is a noteworthy shift.
• This consumption of multiple theories in some
  ways mirrors the mass culture that critical
  theory critiques.
• Is this irony problematic for critical theorists

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Do Knowledge and Truth Exist

• For a critical theorist knowledge and truth do
  exist. Not all critical attitudes are equal.
• However one must recognize that ones own work
  is not objective but a product of a person
  limited by time and location.
• The normative approach of critical theory brings
  one closer to truth and knowledge than positivist
  social science.

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Marxist Influences

• The Dialectical Method -Studies patterns of inner
  conflict. Each system contains within it a
  series of contradictions that eventually
  overburden the system and led to its
  destruction.
• Importance of societys economic organization
• Critique of class relations

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Areas of Study

• Culture Personality and the Administered
  Society
• The Critique of Mass Culture
• Rationalization and Communicative Action
• Evolution and Crisis
• Rationalization and the Lifeworld
• Reason and Rationalization

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Culture Personality and the Administered Society

• Materialist perspective- ie. Fascism is rooted in
  capitalism.
• However the bulk of work focuses on aspects of
  personality culture and thought not social
  institutions.
• Analyses focus on the ways that the economic
  system distorts personality.

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Culture Personality and the Administered
Society- Two Examples

• Adorno in The Authoritarian Personality-
  demonstrates how prejudice is more likely to
  occur in those raised in authoritarian
  environments.
• Fromm expands Marxs alienation to examine
  creativity and identity. Modern man has
  everything a car a house a job kids a
  marriage problems troubles satisfactions He
  is nothing

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The Critique of Mass Culture

• Culture and ideology as a semi-autonomous realm
  (Different from Marx)
• Culture especially mass culture operates to
  maintain and strengthen the existing order.
• Popular culture is a means of manipulating
  inhabitants of a totally administered society.

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Examples of the Mass Culture Critique

• Adorno- attacked Jazz and popular music for being
  standardized and distracting them/passifying.
  (Im a rebel because I listen to rock and roll)
• Adorno- attacked astrology as operating to
  reproduce the social order.
• Marcuse- One Dimensional Man- technical progress
  has made possible a system of domination and
  coordination that defeats all protest. We
  surrender to mass media produced fall needs. We
  have no cultural alternatives.

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Rationalization and Communicative Action- Habermas

• Role of individuals perceptions in maintaining
  or realizing social change
• Evolution and Crisis- Habermas identifies a
  number of social formations
• Builds on Marxs dialectic but he focuses on the
  role of ideas and consciousness.
• Tackles the problem of legitimacy. Why are some
  orders recognized and others are not.

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Liberal Capitalism and the Depoliticization of
Class

• Prior to liberal capitalism relations are clear.
  The control of the state by a small group was
  of central importance.
• Under capitalism a cumulative process of
  rationalization occurs. There is a shift from
  the sacred to the secular.
• How validity claims are made shifts from myth
  religion philosophy to ideology.
• Legitimation crisis is inevitable as
  contradictions of capitalism undermine
  legitimation.

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Rationalization and the Lifeworld

• Lifeworld- how evolutionary change is actually
  experienced by individuals (Habermas).
  Rationalization changes what our taken for
  granted lifeworld is.

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Reason and Rationalization
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Reason and Rationalization

• The order can be rational without rationalized.
• Habermas argues that one can provide the
  grounding for the ultimate norms that govern our
  lives and thereby replace the void left by
  modernitys disenchantment.

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Legitimation Crisis and Flint Michigan

• Economic crisis- How does the economic situation
  in Flint Michigan exemplify Habermas Ideas

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The Example of Walter Benjamin

• Benjamin argues that the shift to the mechanical
  production of art undermines its revolutionary
  potential.
• Benjamin theorizes that the changes in perception
  and how we perceive reflects social
  transformations.
• To an ever greater degree the work of art
  reproduced becomes the work of art designed for
  reproducibility.

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The Culture of Fear and Fascism

• How does the culture of fear fit into Benjamins
  analysis

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Benjamin on the Dangers of Fascism

• Fascism- A system of government that exercises a
  dictatorship of the extreme right typically
  through the merging of state and business
  leadership together with belligerent nationalism.
• Spectacle and Fascism-
• The formation of masses are two aspects of the
  same process- fascism and false self-expression
• All efforts to render politics aesthetic
  culminate in one thing War.