Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE PHI3054

 
TITLE The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School

 
UM LEVEL 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 6

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Philosophy

 
DESCRIPTION The Frankfurt School is said to have begun with the appointment of Max Horkheimer as the director of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) in Frankfurt in 1930. Prior to Horkheimer's appointment, the ISR pursued a strongly inductive research methodology and subscribed to a version of Marxism usually referred to as Orthodox Marxism. The latter view held that the economy unilaterally determines the organisation of the rest of society. Dissatisfied with the intellectual monism of Orthodox Marxism and with the one-sided method of research adopted by the institute, Horkheimer and his colleagues and close associates sought to develop a more philosophically oriented, multi-disciplinary, Marxist-inspired theory of society. For these early critical theorists, understanding oppression and how it can be eradicated called for a thorough analysis and investigation of different facets of human society and life, including not only the economy but also spheres such as art, the human psyche, and the family. In the decades that followed, members of the institute and those theorists who broadly identified with its vision and aims produced various social analyses and theories that sought to determine the causes and character of oppression and propose ways and means eradicating such oppression.

The study-unit explores the thoughts of the major representatives of the different generations of critical theorists. It is divided into four parts. In the first part, the study-unit focuses on how first generation critical theorists - namely Horkheimer and Marcuse - responded to Orthodox Marxism and their vision of a new critical theory of society. In the second part, the study-unit explores the more mature ideas of the first generation of critical theorists, particularly the ideas of Horkheimer, Adorno, and Marcuse. In the third part, the study-unit then explores the work of Habermas - a second generation critical theorist - focusing in particular on his attempt to overcome what he considers to be the theoretical aporias of his predecessors through a communicatively rooted critical theory. Finally, in the fourth part, the study-unit explores post-Habermasian attempts to rework the Marxian concepts of reification and alienation.

Study-Unit Aims:

- Introduce students to the Frankfurt School;
- Encourage students to critically engage with the philosophical ideas of key Frankfurt School theorists;
- Allow students to explore questions related to the nature of political reality;
- Question common-sense assumptions about political reality.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- Explain clearly the most prominent theories of the major representatives of the Frankfurt School;
- Compare and contrast the most prominent theories of the major representatives of the Frankfurt School;
- Critically engage with the most prominent theories of the major representatives of the Frankfurt School by identifying their strengths and weaknesses.

2. Skills:

By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

Specific skills:

- Independently read and understand key texts of the Frankfurt School;
- Conduct independent research on the theories covered in class;
- Write short research papers on key issues in critical theory;
- Discuss key issues in critical theory.

Transferable skills:

- Independently read and understand texts in social theory;
- Be better equipped to discuss social issues affecting the freedom and well-being of persons.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

Main Texts:

- Edgar, Andrew. The Philosophy of Habermas. Chesham: Acumen, 2005.
- Habermas, Jürgen. On the Pragmatics of Communication. Edited by Maeve Cooke. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT, 1998.
- Horkheimer, Max. Between Philosophy and Social Science: Selected Early Writings. Translated by G. Frederick Hunter, Matthew S. Kramer and John Torpey. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press, 1993.
- Horkheimer, Max. Critical Theory: Selected Essays. Translated by Matthew J. O’Connell and others. New York: Continuum, 2002.
- Horkheimer, Max. Eclipse of Reason. New York: Bloomsbury, 2013.
- Horkheimer, Max and Adorno, Theodor W. Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. Edited by Gunzelin Schmid Noerr. Translated by Edmund Jephcott. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002.
- Jaeggi, Rahel. Alienation. Translated by Frederick Neuhouser and Alan E. Smith. New York: Columbia, 2014.
- Kellner, Douglas. Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1989.
- Kellner, Douglas. Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism. London: Palgrave, 1984.
- Marcuse, Herbert. Negations. Translated by Jeremy J. Shapiro. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1962.
- Petherbridge, Danielle (ed.). Axel Honneth: Critical Essays. Leiden: Brill, 2011.

Supplementary Readings:

- Habermas, Jürgen. The Theory of Communicative Action Vol. 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Translated by Thomas McCarthy. Cambridge: Polity, 1984.
- Habermas, Jürgen. The Theory of Communicative Action Vol. 2: The Critique of Functionalist Reason. Translated by Thomas McCarthy. Cambridge: Polity, 1987.
- Honneth, Axel, Butler Judith, Geuss Raymond, and Lear Jonathan. Reification: A New Look at an Old Idea. Edited by Martin Jay. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
- Marcuse, Herbert. Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud. Boston: Beacon, 1966.
- Marcuse, Herbert. One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. Boston: Beacon, 1964.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment SEM1 Yes 50%
Assignment SEM1 Yes 50%

 
LECTURER/S Claude Mangion

 

 
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It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

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