Critical Theory

Critical theory aims to articulate an overall theory of society by using an interdisciplinary approach to the practical conditions of historic ways of life. The designation critical theory is intimately tied to the work of the Frankfurter Institut für Sozialforschung (Frankfurt Institute for Social Research), later called the Frankfurter Schule (Frankfurt School). At the same time, critical theory represents a philosophical and theoretical paradigm that extends beyond that circle and that follows from, along with continental Marxist thinking and theory, both the philosophical analysis and criticism of rationality practiced by Kant and Hegel and the psychoanalysis of Freud.

The circle of researchers around Max Horkheimer at the Institute undertook a fundamental and interdisciplinary approach to establish, on a scientific basis, the necessity and possibility of changing ...