Pathologies Of Reason: On The Legacy Of Critical Theory (new Directions In Critical Theory)
by Axel Honneth /
2009 / English / PDF
26 MB Download
Axel Honneth has been instrumental in advancing the work of the
Frankfurt School of critical theorists, rebuilding their effort
to combine radical social and political analysis with rigorous
philosophical inquiry. These eleven essays published over the
past five years reclaim the relevant themes of the Frankfurt
School, which counted Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter
Benjamin, Jürgen Habermas, Franz Neumann, and Albrecht Wellmer as
members. They also engage with Kant, Freud, Alexander
Mitscherlich, and Michael Walzer, whose work on morality,
history, democracy, and individuality intersects with the
Frankfurt School's core concerns.
Axel Honneth has been instrumental in advancing the work of the
Frankfurt School of critical theorists, rebuilding their effort
to combine radical social and political analysis with rigorous
philosophical inquiry. These eleven essays published over the
past five years reclaim the relevant themes of the Frankfurt
School, which counted Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter
Benjamin, Jürgen Habermas, Franz Neumann, and Albrecht Wellmer as
members. They also engage with Kant, Freud, Alexander
Mitscherlich, and Michael Walzer, whose work on morality,
history, democracy, and individuality intersects with the
Frankfurt School's core concerns.
Collected here for the first time in English, Honneth's essays
pursue the unifying themes and theses that support the
methodologies and thematics of critical social theory, and they
address the possibilities of continuing this tradition through
radically changed theoretical and social conditions. According to
Honneth, there is a unity that underlies critical theory's
multiple approaches: the way in which reason is both distorted
and furthered in contemporary capitalist society. And while much
is dead in the social and psychological doctrines of critical
social theory, its central inquiries remain vitally relevant.
Collected here for the first time in English, Honneth's essays
pursue the unifying themes and theses that support the
methodologies and thematics of critical social theory, and they
address the possibilities of continuing this tradition through
radically changed theoretical and social conditions. According to
Honneth, there is a unity that underlies critical theory's
multiple approaches: the way in which reason is both distorted
and furthered in contemporary capitalist society. And while much
is dead in the social and psychological doctrines of critical
social theory, its central inquiries remain vitally relevant.
Is social progress still possible after the horrors of the
twentieth century? Does capitalism deform reason and, if so, in
what respects? Can we justify the relationship between law and
violence in secular terms, or is it inextricably bound to divine
justice? How can we be free when we're subject to socialization
in a highly complex and in many respects unfree society? For
Honneth, suffering and moral struggle are departure points for a
new "reconstructive" form of social criticism, one that is based
solidly in the empirically grounded, interdisciplinary approach
of the Frankfurt School.
Is social progress still possible after the horrors of the
twentieth century? Does capitalism deform reason and, if so, in
what respects? Can we justify the relationship between law and
violence in secular terms, or is it inextricably bound to divine
justice? How can we be free when we're subject to socialization
in a highly complex and in many respects unfree society? For
Honneth, suffering and moral struggle are departure points for a
new "reconstructive" form of social criticism, one that is based
solidly in the empirically grounded, interdisciplinary approach
of the Frankfurt School.
