Critical Theory and the Challenge of Praxis: Beyond Reification

by Ashgate Publishing Ltd (Other)

Overview

This volume explores possibility of constructing a political outcome from the theory of the early years of the Frankfurt School, countering the commonly-made criticism that critical theory is highly speculative.

With chapters exploring the work of figures central to the Frankfurt School, including Benjamin, Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse, Habermas and Honneth, Critical Theory and the Challenge of Praxis reveals that it is only with a fixed and dogmatic model of politics that critical theory is incompatible, and that it can in fact yield a rich variety of political models, ranging from new forms of Marxism to more contemporary ‘dialogical’ models centred on the politics of identity.

With attention to new ways of contrasting alienation and reification in contemporary forms of social organisation, this book demonstrates that the thought of the Frankfurt school can in fact be an invaluable tool not only for developing a critique of advanced capitalism, but also for originating alternative models of political praxis. As such, it will appeal to scholars of social and political theory, with interests in classical sociological thought and continental philosophy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472447753
Publisher:	Ashgate Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	06/28/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi is Lecturer in Philosophy at the Rome Center of Loyola University Chicago.

Table of Contents

Contents: Introduction, Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi; Adorno’s global subject, Deborah Cook; Adorno’s criticism of Marx’s social theory, Stefano Petrucciani; Adorno as Marx’s scholar: models of resistance against the administered world, Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi; The question of praxis in Adorno’s critical theory, James Gordon Finlayson; Praxis in the age of bit information and sham revolutions: Adorno on praxis in need of thinking, Idit Dobbs-Weinstein; Against the reification of theory and praxis: on critical theory and empirical social research, Karin Stögner; Normative ambivalence and the future of critical theory: Adorno and Horkheimer, Castro-Gómez, Quijano on rationality, modernity, totality, Rocío Zambrana; Realizing philosophy: Marx, Lukács and the Frankfurt School, Andrew Feenberg; On the critique of rights: Adorno, critical theory and natural law, Robert Fine; Rethinking critical theory once again: immanent critique and immanent normativity, Alessandro Ferrara; How practical can critical theory be?, Marcos Nobre; Habermas on solidarity and praxis: between institutional reform and redemptive revolution in Critical Theory and the Challenge of Praxis, David Ingram; The color of Adorno’s thought: on Hito Steyerl’s Adorno’s Grey, Samir Gandesha; An astonished facticity: toward a meta-fetishist ethnography, Massimo Canevacci; Index.