Critical Theory and Society

Critical Theory and Society PDF Author: Stephen Eric Bronner
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000107183
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Get Book Here

Book Description
A collection of seminal essays, many appearing in English for the first time, which provides an excellent overview of the critical theory developed by the Frankfurt School.

Critical Theory and Society

Critical Theory and Society PDF Author: Stephen Eric Bronner
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000107183
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Get Book Here

Book Description
A collection of seminal essays, many appearing in English for the first time, which provides an excellent overview of the critical theory developed by the Frankfurt School.

Towards a Critical Theory of Society

Towards a Critical Theory of Society PDF Author: Herbert Marcuse
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136859977
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
This second volume of Marcuse's collected papers includes unpublished manuscripts from the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as Beyond One-Dimensional Man, Cultural Revolution and The Historical Fate of Bourgeois Democracy, as well as a rich collection of letters. It shows Marcuse at his most radical, focusing on his critical theory of contemporary society, his analyses of technology, capitalism, the fate of the individual, and prospects for social change in contemporary society.

Toward a Critical Theory of Nature

Toward a Critical Theory of Nature PDF Author: Carl Cassegård
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350176273
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
Challenging the normalization of a capitalist reality in which environmental destruction and catastrophe have become 'second nature', Towards a Critical Theory of Nature offers a bold new theoretical understanding of the current crisis via the work of the Frankfurt School. Focusing on key notions of dialectics, natural history, and materialism, a critical theory of nature is outlined in favor of a more traditional Marxist theory of nature, albeit one which still builds on core Marxist concepts to confirm humanity's central place in manufacturing environmental misery. Pre-eminent thinkers of the Frankfurt school, including, Georg Lukács, Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno, and Alfred Schmidt, are highlighted for their potential to diagnose the interpenetration of capitalism and nature in a way that neither absolutizes nor obliterates the boundary between the social and natural. Further theoretical claims and practical consequences of a critical theory of nature challenge other contemporary theoretical approaches like eco-Marxism, social constructivism and new materialism, to situate it as the only approach with genuinely radical potential. The possibility of utopian idealism for understanding and responding to the current climate crisis is carefully measured against the dangers of false hope in setting out realistic goals for change. Environmental change in turn is seen through the prism of recent cultural currents and movements, situating the power of a critical theory of nature in relation to understandings of the Anthropocene; concepts of apocalypse, and postapocalypse. This book culminates in a powerful tool for an anti-capitalist critique of society's painfully extractive relationship to a deceptively abstracted natural world.

Critical Social Theory

Critical Social Theory PDF Author: Tim Dant
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 1847871194
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

Get Book Here

Book Description
Critical theory has left an indelible mark on postwar social thought. But what are the relations between critical theory and ′the cultural turn′ ? How did critical theory inform later French critical theorists, such as Lefebvre, Barthes and Baudrillard? This accomplished and accessible book: - Demonstrates the origins of critical theory in the Marxian analysis of the capitalist mode of production and Freudian psychoanalysis - Clearly explains the main achievements of critical theory - Elucidates how critical theory defines culture as a system that constrains and alienates the individual - Explores the potential for social change and personal emancipation in the critical heritage. The author locates the importance of myth and reason, the significance of sexuality, the place of work, the difference between art and entertainment, the nature of everyday life and the relationship between knowledge and action. The result is a lucid and informative text which will appeal to all students interested in the critical traditions of social thought.

Habermas's Critical Theory of Society

Habermas's Critical Theory of Society PDF Author: Jane Braaten
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 9780791497333
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 212

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book provides an understanding of the content and aims of Habermas's critical theory of society — the theory that analyzes the causes of our cultural lack of direction, polical apathy, and the increasing complexity of modern society. The author offers a foothold on the current debates regarding the credibility and cogency of the theory. Braaten presents Habermas's defense of his critique of reason in his most recent work concerning the confrontation between postmodernists and neoconservatives, and modernists and liberal theorists. She also explores the possibility of applying Habermas's critical resources in the United States in ways that he himself may not have considered.

Critical Theory

Critical Theory PDF Author: Max Horkheimer
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826400833
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Critical Theory and the Digital

Critical Theory and the Digital PDF Author: David M. Berry
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1441166394
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book Here

Book Description
This Critical Theory and Contemporary Society volume re-examines critical theory in light of the challenges raised by today's digital revolution.

The Return of Work in Critical Theory

The Return of Work in Critical Theory PDF Author: Christophe Dejours
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231547188
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 250

Get Book Here

Book Description
From John Maynard Keynes’s prediction of a fifteen-hour workweek to present-day speculation about automation, we have not stopped forecasting the end of work. Critical theory and political philosophy have turned their attention away from the workplace to focus on other realms of domination and emancipation. But far from coming to an end, work continues to occupy a central place in our lives. This is not only because of the amount of time people spend on the job. Many of our deepest hopes and fears are bound up in our labor—what jobs we perform, how we relate to others, how we might flourish. The Return of Work in Critical Theory presents a bold new account of the human significance of work and the human costs of contemporary forms of work organization. A collaboration among experts in philosophy, social theory, and clinical psychology, it brings together empirical research with incisive analysis of the political stakes of contemporary work. The Return of Work in Critical Theory begins by looking in detail at the ways in which work today fails to meet our expectations. It then sketches a phenomenological description of work and examines the normative premises that underlie the experience of work. Finally, it puts forward a novel conception of work that can renew critical theory’s engagement with work and point toward possibilities for transformation. Inspired by Max Horkheimer’s vision of critical theory as empirically informed reflection on the sources of social suffering with emancipatory intent, The Return of Work in Critical Theory is a lucid diagnosis of the malaise and pathologies of contemporary work that proposes powerful remedies.

Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction

Critical Theory: A Very Short Introduction PDF Author: Stephen Eric Bronner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190692693
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Get Book Here

Book Description
Critical theory emerged in the 1920s from the work of the Frankfurt School, the circle of German-Jewish academics who sought to diagnose -- and, if at all possible, cure -- the ills of society, particularly fascism and capitalism. In this book, Stephen Eric Bronner provides sketches of leading representatives of the critical tradition (such as George Lukács and Ernst Bloch, Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse and Jurgen Habermas) as well as many of its seminal texts and empirical investigations. This Very Short Introduction sheds light on the cluster of concepts and themes that set critical theory apart from its more traditional philosophical competitors. Bronner explains and discusses concepts such as method and agency, alienation and reification, the culture industry and repressive tolerance, non-identity and utopia. He argues for the introduction of new categories and perspectives for illuminating the obstacles to progressive change and focusing upon hidden transformative possibilities. In this newly updated second edition, Bronner targets new academic interests, broadens his argument, and adapts it to a global society amid the resurgence of right-wing politics and neo-fascist movements.

The Crisis of Psychoanalysis

The Crisis of Psychoanalysis PDF Author: Erich Fromm
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504093062
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 165

Get Book Here

Book Description
“This book is must reading . . . although it will at times shock and perhaps even offend the sensibilities of traditional therapists.” —American Journal of Psychiatry This book brings together Erich Fromm’s basic statements on the application of psychoanalytic theory to social dynamics. At the same time, it offers an image of man consonant with the hopes of radical humanism. The Crisis of Psychoanalysis is a collection of nine brilliant essays. Although his work is deeply rooted in Freudian theory, Fromm further develops Freud’s doctrines by including both social and ethical dimensions, and applies his discoveries and insights to address the problems we face in society at large. “This collection is a fine representative sampling from a lucid, humane, always attractive writer.” —Kirkus Reviews “Highly recommended.” —Library Journal