Critical Theory

Overview

Critical theory, as a philosophical approach to, or critical sociology of, the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences finds its origin in the 1920s and 1930s with the development of the Frankfurt school, an interdisciplinary neo-Marxist intellectual movement linked to the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research) at the University of Frankfurt am Main in Germany.

Critical theory is defined by Frankfurt school figure Max Horkheimer as a critical philosophy or critical sociology that views knowledge in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences as deeply connected to political and social interests. In other words, critical theory, as an intellectual praxis developed by Frankfurt school figures such as Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm, and Herbert Marcuse, emphasizes the historical materiality of knowledge in relation to the dialectical totality of society, a totality that remains, at its core, indefinable. Walter Benjamin, who is often linked to the movement but not institutionally affiliated with the Frankfurt school, is the person most associated with critical theory of art in modernity. For Benjamin, the history of modern art was not simply a natural evolution of aesthetics and technique; it was art history as the material conditions for reproduction in social contexts. A dominant or shared concern for Frankfurt school critical theorists, then, was the role of knowledge in the production and development of a capitalist society. Critical theory addressed the relationship between power and rationality in capitalist society as well as the problem of technological rationality in the service of authoritarian regimes. While traditional Marxism focused on the development of capitalism in strictly formal economic terms (e.g., modes of production), Frankfurt school critical theorists turned their attention to the critique of ideology, institutions, and culture. Critical theory, as it first developed, took as its object of study the superstructural elements of capitalist infrastructure, which led the way to comprehensive materialist, [Page 156]dialectical critiques of art, literature, music, philosophy, social science, and science.

The distinctive feature of Frankfurt school critical theory can be found in this reformulation of traditional Marxist analysis. While many Marxists of the 1920s and 1930s were pursuing positivist or scientific uses of Marxism, Frankfurt school critical theorists were expanding Marx's Hegelian roots. Martin Jay, in his landmark study titled The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research, 1923–1950, describes the shared methodology of Frankfurt school members as critical of other philosophical traditions. It is important to note, Jay observes, that critical theorists of the Frankfurt school, especially Horkheimer, were not content with further explicating metaphysical truths or the unconcealment of truth. They were committed to the development of social change through intellectual work. Figures such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Wilhelm Dilthey, and Henri Bergson were highly significant to the development of Frankfurt school critical theory, especially the critical theory developed by Horkheimer that emphasized anti-idealist thinking.

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