Critical Theory: Selected Essays

by Max Horkheimer, Matthew J. O'Connell (Translator), Stanley Aronowitz (Introduction)

These essays, written in the 1930s and 1940s, represent a first selection in English from the major work of the founder of the famous Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt. Horkheimer's writings are essential to an understanding of the intellectual background of the New Left and the to much current social-philosophical thought, including the work of Herbert Marcuse. Apart from their historical significance and even from their scholarly eminence, these essays contain an immediate relevance only now becoming fully recognized.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Sociology, Theory, Essays, Politics, Society

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) was a leader of the so-called “Frankfurt School,” a group of philosophers and social scientists associated with the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research) in Frankfurt am Main. Horkheimer was the director of the Institute and Professor of Social Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt from 1930–1933, and again from 1949–1958. In between those periods he would lead the Institute in exile, primarily in America. As a philosopher he is best known (especially in the Anglophone world), for his work during the 1940s, including Dialectic of Enlightenment, which was co-authored with Theodor Adorno. While deservedly influential, Dialectic of Enlightenment (and other works from that period) should not be separated from the context of Horkheimer's work as a whole. Especially important in this regard are the writings from the 1930s, which were largely responsible for developing the epistemological and methodological orientation of Frankfurt School critical theory. This work both influenced his contemporaries (including Adorno and Herbert Marcuse) and has had an enduring influence on critical theory's later practitioners (including Jürgen Habermas, and the Institute's current director Axel Honneth).

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cornerstone of the most invigorating strain of 20th century thought.

[sologdin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of Frankfurt essays, fairly standard.

Lengthy meditation on ‘authority and the family,’ which is reminiscent of Marcuse’s similar offering on the one hand and later Althusser's ‘family’ ISA. Critiques otherwise of positivism, pragmatism, lebensphilosophie.

Key bit is ‘Traditional and Critical Theory,’ laying out a series of distinctions between them. The former is involved with “the establishment of a connection between those elements of an event which are significant for historical continuity and particular determinative happenings” (193). It proceeds through “a, b, c, and d’,” “then event q must be expected; if d is lacking, event r; if g is added, event s” (id.). Ergo, “theory in the traditional sense is actually elaborated” (id.).

By contrast, “there is human activity which has society itself for its object” (206), “suspicious of the very categories of better, useful, appropriate, productive, and valuable” (207). It “refuses to take them as nonscientific presuppositions” (id.). Critical theory aims at a “dialectical character of self-interpretation” (208). To differentiate further: “The subject is no mathematical point like the ego of bourgeois philosophy” (211); “acceptance of an essential unchangeableness between subject, theory, and object thus distinguishes the Cartesian conception from every kind of dialectical logic” (id.).

“If critical theory consisted essentially in formulations of the feelings and ideas of one class at any given moment, it would not be structurally different from the special branches of sciences [!]” (214). “Critical theory has no material accomplishments to show for itself. The change it seeks to bring about is not effected gradually, so that success even if slow might be steady. […] The first consequence of the theory that urges a transformation of society as a whole is only an intensification of the struggle with which the theory is connected” (219).

Traditional theory defines “universal concepts under which all facts in the field in question are to be subsumed” (224); “subject and object are kept strictly apart” (229). Critical on the other hand is “incompatible with the idealist belief that any theory is independent of men” (240).

Anyway, good times to be had by all.

Recommended for those with a ghostlike and distorted picture of the world, readers who retain their selves only by accident, and persons who glorify the rebellion of eros.

[Ethan]

Classic Horkheimer stuff. Lots of good essays. The one that stood out to me most was The Latest Attack on Metaphysics, which was a pretty thorough takedown of logical-empiricism/positivism. I often found myself a tad dissatisfied with the Frankfurt treatment of the positivists in other texts I had read, Marcuse especially I think who wields the term too loosely, but this scratched the itch and said what I knew could be said, and puts it forth fairly strongly.

Probably a standard collection to point to for any prospected Frankfurt-school interest.

[Natan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The concept of God was for a long time the place where the idea was kept alive that there are other norms besides those to which nature and society give expression in their operation. Dissatisfaction with earthly destiny is the strongest motive for acceptance of a transcendental being. If justice resides with God, then it is not to be found in the same measure in the world. Religion is the record of the wishes, desires, and accusations of countless generations." (Thoughts on Religion)

"The compilation of an Index Verborum Prohibitorum containing all words which some noted specialist has pronounced useless, and the formulation of a unitary language and a unitary science, even if their specific usefulness were conceded, do not in any case belong to a science that desires the respect of philosophical thought." (The Social Function of Philosophy)

[CESAR GARCIA · Rating 5 out of 5]

prestarme libro para leer

[Sararo Fernández · Rating 4 out of 5]

bebé

[Josh Fisher]

“There are times when faith in the future of mankind can be kept alive only through absolute resistance to the prevailing responses of men. Such a time is the present.”

[owen schalk · Rating 5 out of 5]

“authority and the family” is one of the best essays I have ever read, truly changed my understanding of how the family functions and reproduces a given social order

[Erich Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente ensayo y texto fundacional de la teoría crítica, donde busca distinguirse el quehacer teórico y científico no crítico del propiamente crítico. El énfasis en la racionalidad y emancipación permite trazar nexos hoy con continuaciones contemporáneas de la Ilustración y del aceleracionismo.

[stew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The bona fides culure critique Adbusters aspires to, but fails miserably at.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skipped "Art and Mass Culture" and "Authority and the Family" since I didn't need to read them for the class I am auditing.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection was released long after the more seminal works of the Frankfurt School, but these essays should be seen as no less foundational to the group's crowning achievement: critical theory.

[Eugene O'Neal]

Very good. Very dense.