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Just as the Frankfurt School responded to the radicalisation of the working class in Germany and the rise of post-war consumerism in the United States, today, we are confronted by platform monopolies, automated hyper-consumption and technological control. Critical approaches to digital media have exposed the structural coupling of Internet use and capital accumulation for almost two decades. However, many authors building on this tradition can struggle to understand how online social interaction is controlled beyond the worn-out critique of false consciousness or beyond conceptualising all digital activity mediated by data as labour. This paper will attempt to theoretically untangle the Marxian ontology of labour and the Frankfurt School-inspired critique of everyday life. This is not just theoretical nit-picking. Society becomes completely dominated if we accept no difference between wage labour and lifeworld activities. Each contains its internal struggles. The value form regulates both in different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article responds to the 2014 American Political Science Association Annual Conference’s theme of “Politics After the Digital Revolution.” It first gives a brief assessment of how the discipline of political science has reacted to the digital revolution. It then seeks to couch the putative revolution in Thorstein Veblen’s theory of a “machine process” in order to recast it less as a discrete phenomenon to be dealt with by the discipline, but instead as part of an evolutionary process of social change that instils habits of mind of those who are subject to it, and who in turn, influence the machine process itself in a co-determinant manner. This article offers the synthesis of Veblen and the Frankfurt School to theorize how the digital revolution might be critically assessed in its evolutionary framework, and speaks towards an evolutionary critical theory for analysing political society beyond discrete events. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper presents the findings of two recent books on the financial history of the Frankfurt School: Jeanette Erazo-Heufelder, Der argentinische Krösus: Kleine Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Frankfurter Schule, 2017, and Bertus Mulder, Sophie Louisa Kwaak und das Kapital der Unternehmerfamilie Weil. Ein Beitrag zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Frankfurter Schule, 2021 (Dutch original 2015). In contrast to the "court histories" of the school, the two authors tell the story of the money that brought the school to life and secured its existence throughout a turbulent period of history. At the center of the books are individuals who have been sidelined until now or even completely ignored by the literature on the Frankfurt School: on the one hand, Felix Weil, who founded and financed the Institute of Social Research and, on the other hand, Erich A. Nadel and Sophie L. Kwaak, two employees of the holding company who managed the accounts of the Weil family and the Institute's foundations and were responsible for protecting the assets from being seized by Nazis. The books' thick descriptions induced the author of the present paper to consider an alternative perspective on the Frankfurt School by contemplating Max Horkheimer and Friedrich Pollock as playing confidential games with Weil and others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My aim in this paper is to explore an affinity between early critical theory and analytical philosophy. The affinity is in a fairly unexpected area: philosophy of science. I argue that early critical theory embraces a view of science which is a natural if somewhat unfamiliar extension of the pragmatist one defended by Quine. In particular, I argue that Horkheimer has a version of the Quine‐Duhem thesis ("underdetermination of theory choice by the evidence"). How do the Frankfurt and analytical versions of the underdetermination thesis differ? Quine and others have taken the thesis to motivate a form of pragmatism. What this means is that it is certain interests that ultimately determine the choice of theory: chief among them, an interest in simplicity of our theories. However, the Critical Theorists offer us a distinctly historical materialist version of the underdetermination thesis, in which it is the imperatives of the prevailing mode of production, for example, capitalism, which are decisive. The result is an unfamiliar Marxist version of an otherwise familiar thesis from the analytic tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to present a brief insight into the significant works and views of the German sociologists Niklas Luhmann and Jűrgen Habermas on the role of law in regulating human relations in society. Educated as a lawyer, Niklas Luhmann in the late academic career was under the influence of the American sociologist Talcott Parsons. Niklas Luhmann later, under the influence of the American sociologist Talcott Parsons, he built a sociological theoretical system called the systems theory. On the other side, Jűrgen Habermas was a philosopher and sociologist, highly influenced by the Frankfurt school of sociology. According to Luhmann's systems theory, the social reality and the separate aspects of the social life are part of a deeper system called society, and in relation to the same they are set as subsystems. Social systems are divided into allopoietic and autopoietic. One of the significant axioms of Luhmann's theory is that the largest number of systems tends to simplify due to the pressure of the environment for greater efficiency. Law in Luhman's systems theory enjoys the status of an autonomous system for regulating society, rather than an instrumental contribution to politics. This brief review exposed a big clash between two influential German thinkers. In this paper we are going to use historical method and analysing of the content of different materials and previous authors that are dealing with the work of Niklas Luhmann and Jűrgen Habermas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to examine Hartmut Rosa's account of 'resonance'. To this end, the analysis is divided into four parts. The first part elucidates the concept of resonance, including Rosa's differentiation between horizontal, diagonal, and vertical 'axes of resonance' and their role in the construction of different 'world-relations'. The second part centres on the concept of alienation, notably the degree to which it constitutes an integral element of modern life forms and, in a larger sense, of the human condition. The third part grapples with the dialectic of resonance and alienation, shedding light on the assumption that they are antithetical to each other, while contending that their in-depth study provides normative parameters to distinguish between 'the good life' and 'the bad life'. The final part scrutinizes Rosa's attempt to defend his outline of a sociological theory of resonance against objections raised by his critics and comprises a point-by-point assessment of his plea for a resonance-focused sociology of world-relations. The paper concludes by suggesting that, notwithstanding its limitations, Rosa's approach represents one of the most promising developments in twenty-first-century critical theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores possible ways in which urban design can engage with critical thinking and critical theory. After a brief explanation of the terms, with particular attention to the Frankfurt School of thought, it provides various answers to the question as to whether urban design is critical or not. One categorization applied to planning critical theory is then used to explain the potential for employing critical theories in urban design. Critical thinking skills are then argued to be helpful for enriching the literature of urban design in order to achieve better practice. The conclusion is that urban design can benefit from critical creativity, which is an embodiment of critical thinking within the limits imposed onto creativity. In this paper, the ways in which urban design can engage with both critical theory and with critical thinking are explored in order to achieve better critical creativity in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has as objectives, propose the issue of the need for analog dialogue between Critical Theory with the Philosophy of Liberation, fundamentally among the new generations, towards a concerted effort a systematic criticism of capitalism and modernity. View some relationships that had place in XX century, between the thinkers of the Frankfurt School and Latin America that new generations should retake. And finally, see the conditions of possibility of such analog dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freud was a major cultural and intellectual influence in the twentieth century, whose significance waned. Kaye's exposition argues that part of the reason is that his presentation of himself as a medical scientist obscured his true interest in society and thus the social theory that informed his commentary on culture. In support of this argument he reconstructs the social theory. The reconstruction exhibits some familiar problems: the question of how deep motivations relating to the parricide hypothesis are transmitted over millennia, the plausibility of the family drama itself, the question of the cultural origins of Freud's own perspective, and the plausibility and historical specificity of his cultural diagnosis. The paper comments on some of the prehistory of these problems to contextualize Freud, and to discuss the problem of resonance: the dependence of acceptance of his arguments on seeing the mechanisms in oneself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author addresses the notion of 'social pathology' that proliferates within the Frankfurt School with the aim of reconstruction of its underlying sociological analysis model and advance some notes for its operationalization. For this purpose, the paper goes through the history of the notion of 'social pathology' and points out some of its limitations (1-2); then formally reconstructs its underlying analysis model, namely, the one that aims to identify blockages of individual autonomy which are promoted by social structures by involuntarily undoing experimental prerequisites of self-reflection (3). As a corollary to such reconstruction, the article advances notes to address the singular case of social acceleration from the perspective of social pathologies (4-6). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how Germans can confront the Nazi past in line with the book "Finis Germania" by German historian Rolf Peter Sieferle, published in 2017. Topics covered include controversy about Sieferle's statements about the Third Reich and the Holocaust, burden of guilt being endured by the children of postwar Germany for its Holocaust crimes, influence of the Frankfurt School on the claims of Sieferle and shift toward a religion of atonement and grace to confront the Nazi past.

This paper chronicles a “missed connection” between the young Herbert Marcuse and his American contemporary, the philosopher Sidney Hook, and finds an unexpected complementarity in their efforts to reinvigorate the Marxist tradition against the backdrop of Stalinism. It examines the two philosophers’ first exchange in the early 1940s, by which time Hook had abandoned both his political and intellectual radicalism. Finally, it shows that the terms of Hook’s objection to Marcuse’s critical theory prefigured the tradtional left’s resistance to Marxist-humanism following the dissemination of Marx’s early manuscripts two decades later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the often overlooked parallels between the critical theory of the German Frankfurt School and Science and Technology Studies in Britain, as an attempt to articulate a critique of science as a social phenomenon. The cultural aspect of the German and British arguments is in focus, especially the role attributed to the humanities in balancing cultural and techno-scientific values in society. Here, we draw parallels between the German argument and the Two Cultures debate in Britain. The third and final purpose of the paper is to explain why these efforts in support of the humanities would in the end prove fruitless, even somewhat self-defeating. The key factor is the instrumentalist analysis of science adopted in both arguments, which played into the hands of the emergent “entrepreneurial university” with its strengthened emphasis upon the economico-technological aspect of science and consequent neglect of the humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Max Horkheimer claims that the excessive use of instrumental reason not only affects the individuals, but also the institutions themselves. In this paper I will argue that an institution is more affected by the use of instrumental reason when the individuals are more involved with it. To do so, first, I will describe Horkheimer's account on instrumental reason for it is important to fix the concepts and distinguish Horkheimer's purposes from other authors or traditions that have studied the same phenomenon, such as Max Weber. Then I will explore the instrumentalization of the family according to Horkheimer and I will figure out if it can be compared to the process of rationalizations that happens in other contexts. Finally I will conclude that instrumental reason affects family in a greater degree that other social spheres due to the fact that family is where individuals are formed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show that diagnosis following critical theory is a pathology of reason. The hypothesis of this research argues that this disease can be characterized as a lack of reason result of the distortion of the historical project of a socially active reason. In this endeavor, it will show in summary, the idea of rationality that follows Critical Theory as the basis of diagnosis of the state of reason and the way how it is intertwined with capitalist market society. Subsequently, the idea of unreason will examine and try to show the ethical burden associated with this approach, as well as, its achievements and prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with classical compatibilism, the traditional approach to the free will problem according to which free will is compatible with determinism. Free will itself is interpreted by classical compatibilists as the possibility for agents to act otherwise if they choose to do so. Recent discussions have not favored classical compatibilism and some potent arguments against it have been put forward. On closer inspection, however, these arguments can be refuted. As a result, some intuitions concerning free will and moral responsibility are clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a hallmark of the Frankfurt School tradition of critical theory that it has consistently made philosophical reflection a central component of its overall project. Indeed, the core identity that this tradition has been able to maintain arguably stems from the fact that a number of key philosophical assumptions have been shared by the generations of thinkers involved in it. These assumptions form a basic ‘philosophical matrix’, whose main aim is to allow for a ‘critique of reason’, the heart of the critique of modern society, which emphasises the collective, historically situated and naturalistically grounded nature of rationality. In this matrix, Feuerbach's place has been only a minor one. This paper aims to show that there is more to be retrieved from Feuerbach for critical theory than at first meets the eye. The first section identifies key conceptual features that are shared by the central authors of the Frankfurt School. They signal a collectivist and materialist shift from Kant to Marx via Hegel. This shift is well adumbrated in Feuerbach's emphasis on the ‘intersubjective’ and social dependency of the subject. However, Feuerbach's decisive philosophical contribution lies in his insistence on the ‘sensuous’ modalities of intersubjectivity, that is, on the fact that the dependency of subjects on others for the formation of their capacities is mediated and expressed not only through language and other symbolic forms, but also and primarily through embodiment. This Feuerbachian ‘sensualism’ is a rich, original philosophical position, which is not soluble in Marx's own version of materialism. In sections II and III, I highlight the legacy of Feuerbach's sensualism in two areas of critical theory: first, in relation to the critical epistemology that grows out of the ‘philosophical matrix’ consistently used by critical theorists; and secondly, in relation to the arguments in philosophical anthropology that are mobilized to promote the critical project. In these two areas, Feuerbach's sensualism – his insistence on the embodied dimensions of cognition and action – represents a useful resource to resist the tendency of critical theory to translate its foundation in the critique of reason into a narrowly rationalistic enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although the commodification of experience has been a long-standing concern for critical scholars, today the breadth and depth of this practice and the conscious manipulation involved is unparalleled. In this paper I analyse contemporary commodification of experience drawing on insights from the early Frankfurt school and autonomist thought. In doing so, I show how contemporary commodification of experience, understood in particular in terms of expropriation of the affective common, comprises a form of biopolitical exploitation that is part of broader biopolitical struggles in which capital seeks to draw the entirety of human life into its circuit of valorization. Although the critique of the Frankfurt school remains important, the variety of forms of experience for sale today warrants a broader politico-economic analysis in light of historical changes in the logic of accumulation and the operation of the commodity-form, which autonomist thought can help illuminate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]