Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, Otto Kircheimer, and Raymond Geuss
Raffaele Laudani (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691134130
- eISBN:
- 9781400846467
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691134130.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Military History
This introduction discusses the Frankfurt School's contribution to the United States' World War II effort. In particular, it examines the role played by three German scholars and prominent members of ...
More
This introduction discusses the Frankfurt School's contribution to the United States' World War II effort. In particular, it examines the role played by three German scholars and prominent members of the Frankfurt School: Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer. As political analysts at the Research and Analysis Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the first American intelligence agency, Neumann, Marcuse, and Kirchheimer prepared intelligence reports on Nazi Germany. The chapter considers how, by adapting Critical Theory to the American cultural and bureaucratic machine, the Frankfurt group was rapidly able to impose their own “intellectual guidance” on the Central European Section, a Research and Analysis Branch subdivision charged with analyzing and studying Nazi Germany (as well as Austria and the other Central European countries).Less
This introduction discusses the Frankfurt School's contribution to the United States' World War II effort. In particular, it examines the role played by three German scholars and prominent members of the Frankfurt School: Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer. As political analysts at the Research and Analysis Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the first American intelligence agency, Neumann, Marcuse, and Kirchheimer prepared intelligence reports on Nazi Germany. The chapter considers how, by adapting Critical Theory to the American cultural and bureaucratic machine, the Frankfurt group was rapidly able to impose their own “intellectual guidance” on the Central European Section, a Research and Analysis Branch subdivision charged with analyzing and studying Nazi Germany (as well as Austria and the other Central European countries).
Andrew N. Rubin
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691154152
- eISBN:
- 9781400842179
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691154152.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter turns to Institute for Social Research (or Frankfurt School) member Theodor Adorno as the partial representation of the experience of exile in terms of the ideology of positivism, which ...
More
This chapter turns to Institute for Social Research (or Frankfurt School) member Theodor Adorno as the partial representation of the experience of exile in terms of the ideology of positivism, which had damaged the very category of experience in general. Positivism and empiricism had reduced reality to a prosaic and administered calculus, the effect of which was embodied in the position of the exile when confronted with modernity. Moreover, as Adorno writes, “It is unmistakably clear to the intellectual from abroad that he will have to eradicate himself as an autonomous being if he hopes to achieve anything.” In postwar Germany, his critique of positivism would face new, mostly institutional challenges.Less
This chapter turns to Institute for Social Research (or Frankfurt School) member Theodor Adorno as the partial representation of the experience of exile in terms of the ideology of positivism, which had damaged the very category of experience in general. Positivism and empiricism had reduced reality to a prosaic and administered calculus, the effect of which was embodied in the position of the exile when confronted with modernity. Moreover, as Adorno writes, “It is unmistakably clear to the intellectual from abroad that he will have to eradicate himself as an autonomous being if he hopes to achieve anything.” In postwar Germany, his critique of positivism would face new, mostly institutional challenges.
Tyrus Miller
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748640188
- eISBN:
- 9781474400862
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640188.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
In this chapter, the history of the Frankfurt School project is briefly surveyed, with especial attention to how the major thematics of their interdisciplinary social research correspond with ...
More
In this chapter, the history of the Frankfurt School project is briefly surveyed, with especial attention to how the major thematics of their interdisciplinary social research correspond with important the currents of modernist art, culture, and thought in the first decades of the twentieth century. Following this survey, I discuss key concepts by figures closely related to or influential on the work of the Frankfurt School, though not strictly speaking “members”: the concept of reification in Georg Lukács, the analysis of technology in Siegfried Kracauer, and the notion of utopia / non-synchronicity in Ernst Bloch. I conclude with discussion of how the Frankfurt School, especially Benjamin and Adorno, influenced later debates about high and low culture in the context of 1980s and 1990s post-modernism.Less
In this chapter, the history of the Frankfurt School project is briefly surveyed, with especial attention to how the major thematics of their interdisciplinary social research correspond with important the currents of modernist art, culture, and thought in the first decades of the twentieth century. Following this survey, I discuss key concepts by figures closely related to or influential on the work of the Frankfurt School, though not strictly speaking “members”: the concept of reification in Georg Lukács, the analysis of technology in Siegfried Kracauer, and the notion of utopia / non-synchronicity in Ernst Bloch. I conclude with discussion of how the Frankfurt School, especially Benjamin and Adorno, influenced later debates about high and low culture in the context of 1980s and 1990s post-modernism.
Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer
Raffaele Laudani (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691134130
- eISBN:
- 9781400846467
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691134130.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Military History
During World War II, three prominent members of the Frankfurt School—Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer—worked as intelligence analysts for the Office of Strategic Services, the ...
More
During World War II, three prominent members of the Frankfurt School—Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer—worked as intelligence analysts for the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime forerunner of the CIA. This book brings together their most important intelligence reports on Nazi Germany, most of them published here for the first time. These reports provide a fresh perspective on Adolf Hitler's regime and the Second World War, and a fascinating window on Frankfurt School critical theory. They develop a detailed analysis of Nazism as a social and economic system and the role of anti-Semitism in Nazism, as well as a coherent plan for the reconstruction of postwar Germany as a democratic political system with a socialist economy. These reports played a significant role in the development of postwar Allied policy, including denazification and the preparation of the Nuremberg Trials. They also reveal how wartime intelligence analysis shaped the intellectual agendas of these three important German–Jewish scholars who fled Nazi persecution prior to the war. The book features a foreword and a comprehensive general introduction that puts these writings in historical and intellectual context.Less
During World War II, three prominent members of the Frankfurt School—Franz Neumann, Herbert Marcuse, and Otto Kirchheimer—worked as intelligence analysts for the Office of Strategic Services, the wartime forerunner of the CIA. This book brings together their most important intelligence reports on Nazi Germany, most of them published here for the first time. These reports provide a fresh perspective on Adolf Hitler's regime and the Second World War, and a fascinating window on Frankfurt School critical theory. They develop a detailed analysis of Nazism as a social and economic system and the role of anti-Semitism in Nazism, as well as a coherent plan for the reconstruction of postwar Germany as a democratic political system with a socialist economy. These reports played a significant role in the development of postwar Allied policy, including denazification and the preparation of the Nuremberg Trials. They also reveal how wartime intelligence analysis shaped the intellectual agendas of these three important German–Jewish scholars who fled Nazi persecution prior to the war. The book features a foreword and a comprehensive general introduction that puts these writings in historical and intellectual context.
Simon Mussell
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526105707
- eISBN:
- 9781526132253
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526105707.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
The book provides a new perspective on the early work of the Frankfurt School, by focusing on the vital role that affect and feeling play in the development of critical theory. Building on ...
More
The book provides a new perspective on the early work of the Frankfurt School, by focusing on the vital role that affect and feeling play in the development of critical theory. Building on contemporary theories of affect, the author argues that any renewal of critical theory today must have an affective politics at its core. If one’s aim is to effectively theorize, criticize, and ultimately transform existing social relations, then a strictly rationalist model of political thought remains inadequate. In many respects, this flies in the face of predominant forms of political philosophy, which have long upheld reason and rationality as sole proprietors of political legitimacy. Critical theory and feeling shows how the work of the early Frankfurt School offers a dynamic and necessary corrective to the excesses of formalized reason. Studying a range of themes – from melancholia, unhappiness, and hope, to mimesis, affect, and objects – this book provides a radical rethinking of critical theory for our times.Less
The book provides a new perspective on the early work of the Frankfurt School, by focusing on the vital role that affect and feeling play in the development of critical theory. Building on contemporary theories of affect, the author argues that any renewal of critical theory today must have an affective politics at its core. If one’s aim is to effectively theorize, criticize, and ultimately transform existing social relations, then a strictly rationalist model of political thought remains inadequate. In many respects, this flies in the face of predominant forms of political philosophy, which have long upheld reason and rationality as sole proprietors of political legitimacy. Critical theory and feeling shows how the work of the early Frankfurt School offers a dynamic and necessary corrective to the excesses of formalized reason. Studying a range of themes – from melancholia, unhappiness, and hope, to mimesis, affect, and objects – this book provides a radical rethinking of critical theory for our times.
Hugh Grady
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199257607
- eISBN:
- 9780191717796
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199257607.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
This introductory chapter begins with an analysis of how historicist approaches to Shakespeare have come to dominate the field, obscuring the ‘presentist’ qualities of contemporary historicism. But a ...
More
This introductory chapter begins with an analysis of how historicist approaches to Shakespeare have come to dominate the field, obscuring the ‘presentist’ qualities of contemporary historicism. But a confrontation with the thinking and feeling of the ‘now’ is inevitable and desirable in our approaches to the cultural past, with the works of Shakespeare a crucial case in point. The following analysis of Machiavellian and Montaignean influences on the Henriad and Hamlet is itself informed by the rise in the 90s of a number of modifications to the theories of the subject of the 80s. These theories arose from texts of Foucault and Althusser, and, in addition to their insights, they led at times to reductive readings, blind to the actions of agency. A corrective is provided by the Frankfurt School approach to power and subjectivity. Both the past and the cultural present are relevant to this study, which uses Machiavelli and Montaigne as historical sources with relevance to our own day and its cultural theory.Less
This introductory chapter begins with an analysis of how historicist approaches to Shakespeare have come to dominate the field, obscuring the ‘presentist’ qualities of contemporary historicism. But a confrontation with the thinking and feeling of the ‘now’ is inevitable and desirable in our approaches to the cultural past, with the works of Shakespeare a crucial case in point. The following analysis of Machiavellian and Montaignean influences on the Henriad and Hamlet is itself informed by the rise in the 90s of a number of modifications to the theories of the subject of the 80s. These theories arose from texts of Foucault and Althusser, and, in addition to their insights, they led at times to reductive readings, blind to the actions of agency. A corrective is provided by the Frankfurt School approach to power and subjectivity. Both the past and the cultural present are relevant to this study, which uses Machiavelli and Montaigne as historical sources with relevance to our own day and its cultural theory.
Tyrus Miller
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748640188
- eISBN:
- 9781474400862
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640188.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
The Frankfurt School theoretical tendency and the individual thinkers connected with it have exercised an enormous influence across a broad spectrum of contemporary cultural scholarship. Modernist ...
More
The Frankfurt School theoretical tendency and the individual thinkers connected with it have exercised an enormous influence across a broad spectrum of contemporary cultural scholarship. Modernist studies have been no exception in this regard. The more that modernist studies in recent years have taken shape as a distinct field of inquiry, the more intensely have contemporary scholars looked to the Frankfurt School legacy to explain key problems that arise in their research and teaching. In the specific case of modernism, however, there exists an even stronger motivation for the interest and influence of Frankfurt School critical theory: the close, multifaceted attention the Frankfurt School thinkers gave to the nature of modernity and the social, political, and aesthetic implications of it. Arguably, there is an “elective affinity” between the culture of artistic modernism, which responds to and artistically reshapes typical experiences of modernity, and Frankfurt School critical theory, which takes modern experience and its transformations as a primary object of critical reflection. Just as modernist artists responded to new modern experiences by reconceiving the style, form, and criteria of value for works of art, so too the key figures of the Frankfurt School developed daringly innovative, interdisciplinary critical approaches to the emerging phenomena of modern life. Coming out of and responding to the same matrix of problems, modernism and Frankfurt School theory exhibit parallel, complementary styles of thought in their respective figural and theoretical idioms.Less
The Frankfurt School theoretical tendency and the individual thinkers connected with it have exercised an enormous influence across a broad spectrum of contemporary cultural scholarship. Modernist studies have been no exception in this regard. The more that modernist studies in recent years have taken shape as a distinct field of inquiry, the more intensely have contemporary scholars looked to the Frankfurt School legacy to explain key problems that arise in their research and teaching. In the specific case of modernism, however, there exists an even stronger motivation for the interest and influence of Frankfurt School critical theory: the close, multifaceted attention the Frankfurt School thinkers gave to the nature of modernity and the social, political, and aesthetic implications of it. Arguably, there is an “elective affinity” between the culture of artistic modernism, which responds to and artistically reshapes typical experiences of modernity, and Frankfurt School critical theory, which takes modern experience and its transformations as a primary object of critical reflection. Just as modernist artists responded to new modern experiences by reconceiving the style, form, and criteria of value for works of art, so too the key figures of the Frankfurt School developed daringly innovative, interdisciplinary critical approaches to the emerging phenomena of modern life. Coming out of and responding to the same matrix of problems, modernism and Frankfurt School theory exhibit parallel, complementary styles of thought in their respective figural and theoretical idioms.
Paul A. Cantor
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780813140827
- eISBN:
- 9780813141299
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813140827.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Chapter Eight analyzes Edgar Ulmer's classic film noir Detour and its bleak portrait of America as a land of frustrated desires and lost dreams. It explores the affinities between Detour and the ...
More
Chapter Eight analyzes Edgar Ulmer's classic film noir Detour and its bleak portrait of America as a land of frustrated desires and lost dreams. It explores the affinities between Detour and the Frankfurt School critique of Hollywood as a dream factory. Detour deconstructs the American myth of the West, especially Hollywood, as a land of opportunity. The chapter argues that film noir is not a purely home grown American product, as many have claimed. Like Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Ulmer was a European émigré who looked at America from an alien perspective, and found himself alienated even from its landscape. This alienation surfaces in his characters, who drift hopelessly through a world empty of love, family, and companionship. Aspects of America that represent freedom to its citizens—like open roads—look like sources of disorder and chaos to Ulmer's European sensibility.Less
Chapter Eight analyzes Edgar Ulmer's classic film noir Detour and its bleak portrait of America as a land of frustrated desires and lost dreams. It explores the affinities between Detour and the Frankfurt School critique of Hollywood as a dream factory. Detour deconstructs the American myth of the West, especially Hollywood, as a land of opportunity. The chapter argues that film noir is not a purely home grown American product, as many have claimed. Like Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Ulmer was a European émigré who looked at America from an alien perspective, and found himself alienated even from its landscape. This alienation surfaces in his characters, who drift hopelessly through a world empty of love, family, and companionship. Aspects of America that represent freedom to its citizens—like open roads—look like sources of disorder and chaos to Ulmer's European sensibility.
Cecilia Sjöholm
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231173087
- eISBN:
- 9780231539906
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231173087.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Opposite the stern political theorizing of the previous four chapters, Sjöholm concludes her text with an analysis of comedy. Charlie Chaplin represents, for Arendt, the serious mode of comedy that ...
More
Opposite the stern political theorizing of the previous four chapters, Sjöholm concludes her text with an analysis of comedy. Charlie Chaplin represents, for Arendt, the serious mode of comedy that presents a necessary ideology critique; Chaplin is the split that modernity demands from subjects, the dictator yet also the proletariat, the bureaucratic insistence that Chaplin, like Eichmann, could be the next totalitarian leader. Anti-Semitism solidifies the foundations of totalitarianism and uses the Arendtian concept of ‘realness’ to pervade the minds of the public. Thus, propaganda and media were of primary importance to totalitarian regimes – deconstructing reality in order to posit the imaginary power of the fascist leader. Anti-Semitism is the product of the enlightenment (following the Frankfurt School) in which the Jew was the exclusion needed to be exiled. Art is paramount in Arendt’s philosophy because of the political dependence on aesthetics as action. Art emulates the freedom and spontaneity necessary to resist totalitarian moments and authority. Concluding, Sjöholm argues that art solidifies all major political tenants in Arendt: including an ontology of plurality, the public sphere and solidarity.Less
Opposite the stern political theorizing of the previous four chapters, Sjöholm concludes her text with an analysis of comedy. Charlie Chaplin represents, for Arendt, the serious mode of comedy that presents a necessary ideology critique; Chaplin is the split that modernity demands from subjects, the dictator yet also the proletariat, the bureaucratic insistence that Chaplin, like Eichmann, could be the next totalitarian leader. Anti-Semitism solidifies the foundations of totalitarianism and uses the Arendtian concept of ‘realness’ to pervade the minds of the public. Thus, propaganda and media were of primary importance to totalitarian regimes – deconstructing reality in order to posit the imaginary power of the fascist leader. Anti-Semitism is the product of the enlightenment (following the Frankfurt School) in which the Jew was the exclusion needed to be exiled. Art is paramount in Arendt’s philosophy because of the political dependence on aesthetics as action. Art emulates the freedom and spontaneity necessary to resist totalitarian moments and authority. Concluding, Sjöholm argues that art solidifies all major political tenants in Arendt: including an ontology of plurality, the public sphere and solidarity.
Pamela M. Potter
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520282346
- eISBN:
- 9780520957961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520282346.003.0002
- Subject:
- Art, Visual Culture
This chapter looks at challenges faced by refugees from Nazism and their direct and indirect role in establishing perceptions about Nazi culture that still have deep roots in arts scholarship. Exile ...
More
This chapter looks at challenges faced by refugees from Nazism and their direct and indirect role in establishing perceptions about Nazi culture that still have deep roots in arts scholarship. Exile studies, generally romanticizing their subjects’ experiences, developed a particular concept of Weimar modernism—that exiles exported and preserved the “good” German culture under assault by the Nazis—and in the process, these studies established the year 1933 as a caesura in German cultural history. But artists and performers encountered numerous challenges along the way, facing economic stresses in each of the countries they entered, and while intellectuals had a better experience (accounting for the outspokenness of Thomas Mann and the productivity of the Frankfurt School), all were held in suspicion for being Jews, Communists, and Germans. Cultural histories still reflect the influence of Adorno and Kracauer, but by reinterpreting exiles’ judgments in light of the insecurities they faced as refugees, we can see how those who were most vocal in proclaiming and redressing Nazi oppression did so in part to demonstrate their loyalties to host countries. Many had to distance themselves from all that was cultivated in Nazi Germany, even when they shared strong ties with that same cultural heritage.Less
This chapter looks at challenges faced by refugees from Nazism and their direct and indirect role in establishing perceptions about Nazi culture that still have deep roots in arts scholarship. Exile studies, generally romanticizing their subjects’ experiences, developed a particular concept of Weimar modernism—that exiles exported and preserved the “good” German culture under assault by the Nazis—and in the process, these studies established the year 1933 as a caesura in German cultural history. But artists and performers encountered numerous challenges along the way, facing economic stresses in each of the countries they entered, and while intellectuals had a better experience (accounting for the outspokenness of Thomas Mann and the productivity of the Frankfurt School), all were held in suspicion for being Jews, Communists, and Germans. Cultural histories still reflect the influence of Adorno and Kracauer, but by reinterpreting exiles’ judgments in light of the insecurities they faced as refugees, we can see how those who were most vocal in proclaiming and redressing Nazi oppression did so in part to demonstrate their loyalties to host countries. Many had to distance themselves from all that was cultivated in Nazi Germany, even when they shared strong ties with that same cultural heritage.
Bruce Kuklick
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199260164
- eISBN:
- 9780191597893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199260168.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
In the inter‐war period and after, three movements of European thought were influential in the US because of the Nazi‐triggered exodus of intellectuals. The most important was that of European ...
More
In the inter‐war period and after, three movements of European thought were influential in the US because of the Nazi‐triggered exodus of intellectuals. The most important was that of European positivists, led by Rudolph Carnap. The Marxists of the Frankfurt School had less of an impact in America, except for Herbert Marcuse, who remained in the country. Varieties of existentialism finally reached the US after World War II, although individual thinkers did not permanently migrate. The conflict between positivism and existentialism was to have serious consequences for professional philosophy.Less
In the inter‐war period and after, three movements of European thought were influential in the US because of the Nazi‐triggered exodus of intellectuals. The most important was that of European positivists, led by Rudolph Carnap. The Marxists of the Frankfurt School had less of an impact in America, except for Herbert Marcuse, who remained in the country. Varieties of existentialism finally reached the US after World War II, although individual thinkers did not permanently migrate. The conflict between positivism and existentialism was to have serious consequences for professional philosophy.
Daniel Levine
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199916061
- eISBN:
- 9780199980246
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199916061.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This book bridges two key divides in International Relations. The first is between ‘value-free’ and normative theory. The second is between reflective, philosophically inflected explorations of ...
More
This book bridges two key divides in International Relations. The first is between ‘value-free’ and normative theory. The second is between reflective, philosophically inflected explorations of ethics in IR and empirical studies of practical problems in world politics. Featuring a novel, provocative and detailed survey of IR’s development over the second half of the twentieth century, the work draws on early Frankfurt School social theory to suggest a new ethical and methodological foundation for international theory—sustainable critique—which draws these disparate approaches together in light of their common aims, and redacts them in the face of their particular limitations. Understanding the discipline as a vocation as well as a series of academic and methodological practices, sustainable critique views normative and empirical theory both in terms of the knowledge they disclose, and in terms of their respective tendencies to reify. Each, it is argued, must be therefore be sustained in the same intellectual moment: if IR is to meaningfully and responsibly address an increasingly dense, heavily armed, and persistently diverse world.Less
This book bridges two key divides in International Relations. The first is between ‘value-free’ and normative theory. The second is between reflective, philosophically inflected explorations of ethics in IR and empirical studies of practical problems in world politics. Featuring a novel, provocative and detailed survey of IR’s development over the second half of the twentieth century, the work draws on early Frankfurt School social theory to suggest a new ethical and methodological foundation for international theory—sustainable critique—which draws these disparate approaches together in light of their common aims, and redacts them in the face of their particular limitations. Understanding the discipline as a vocation as well as a series of academic and methodological practices, sustainable critique views normative and empirical theory both in terms of the knowledge they disclose, and in terms of their respective tendencies to reify. Each, it is argued, must be therefore be sustained in the same intellectual moment: if IR is to meaningfully and responsibly address an increasingly dense, heavily armed, and persistently diverse world.
Seyla Benhabib
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691167251
- eISBN:
- 9780691184234
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691167251.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter talks about how the announcement that Judith Butler was awarded the Adorno Prize of the city of Frankfurt led to an intense controversy that engulfed officials of the German-Jewish and ...
More
This chapter talks about how the announcement that Judith Butler was awarded the Adorno Prize of the city of Frankfurt led to an intense controversy that engulfed officials of the German-Jewish and Israeli communities, members of academia, journalists, and public intellectuals. At issue was whether, given her support of the Israel Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), Butler should have been honored in the name of a Jewish-German refugee and one of the revered founders of the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. Nonetheless, Butler's achievement is to retrieve ethical imperatives toward a vision of cohabitation by reviving Jewish memories of exile and persecution, in that she reexamines long-forgotten distinctions between cultural and political Zionism.Less
This chapter talks about how the announcement that Judith Butler was awarded the Adorno Prize of the city of Frankfurt led to an intense controversy that engulfed officials of the German-Jewish and Israeli communities, members of academia, journalists, and public intellectuals. At issue was whether, given her support of the Israel Global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), Butler should have been honored in the name of a Jewish-German refugee and one of the revered founders of the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. Nonetheless, Butler's achievement is to retrieve ethical imperatives toward a vision of cohabitation by reviving Jewish memories of exile and persecution, in that she reexamines long-forgotten distinctions between cultural and political Zionism.
Veronika Fuechtner
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520258372
- eISBN:
- 9780520950382
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520258372.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
One hundred years after the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute was established, this book recovers the cultural and intellectual history connected to this vibrant organization and places it alongside ...
More
One hundred years after the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute was established, this book recovers the cultural and intellectual history connected to this vibrant organization and places it alongside the London Bloomsbury group, the Paris Surrealist circle, and the Viennese fin-de-siècle as a crucial chapter in the history of modernism. Taking us from World War I Berlin to the Third Reich and beyond to 1940s Palestine and 1950s New York — and to the influential work of the Frankfurt School — the book traces the network of artists and psychoanalysts that began in Germany and continued in exile. Connecting movements, forms, and themes such as Dada, multi-perspectivity, and the urban experience with the theory and practice of psychoanalysis, it illuminates themes distinctive to the Berlin psychoanalytic context such as war trauma, masculinity and femininity, race and anti-Semitism, and the cultural avant-garde. In particular, it explores the lives and works of Alfred Döblin, Max Eitingon, Georg Groddeck, Karen Horney, Richard Huelsenbeck, Count Hermann von Keyserling, Ernst Simmel, and Arnold Zweig.Less
One hundred years after the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute was established, this book recovers the cultural and intellectual history connected to this vibrant organization and places it alongside the London Bloomsbury group, the Paris Surrealist circle, and the Viennese fin-de-siècle as a crucial chapter in the history of modernism. Taking us from World War I Berlin to the Third Reich and beyond to 1940s Palestine and 1950s New York — and to the influential work of the Frankfurt School — the book traces the network of artists and psychoanalysts that began in Germany and continued in exile. Connecting movements, forms, and themes such as Dada, multi-perspectivity, and the urban experience with the theory and practice of psychoanalysis, it illuminates themes distinctive to the Berlin psychoanalytic context such as war trauma, masculinity and femininity, race and anti-Semitism, and the cultural avant-garde. In particular, it explores the lives and works of Alfred Döblin, Max Eitingon, Georg Groddeck, Karen Horney, Richard Huelsenbeck, Count Hermann von Keyserling, Ernst Simmel, and Arnold Zweig.
Richard Devetak
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- August 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198823568
- eISBN:
- 9780191862182
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198823568.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter revisits the intellectual resources marshalled by critical international theory. It starts with the Frankfurt School and Max Horkheimer’s distinction between two conceptions of ...
More
This chapter revisits the intellectual resources marshalled by critical international theory. It starts with the Frankfurt School and Max Horkheimer’s distinction between two conceptions of theory—critical and traditional. The chapter then turns to extended discussions of German idealism and historical materialism—in particular, Kant, Hegel, and Marx—to outline the normative and dialectical forms of social philosophy inherited by the Frankfurt School. Arising out of Kant’s transcendental philosophy was a form of critique concerned with the epistemic conditions under which the reasoning subject attains a pure intelligence detached from experience. This provided the context in which Hegel and Marx introduced their dialectical social theories. The chapter’s final section revisits the Kantian Enlightenment, which has exerted such an important influence over critical international theory. Running through the chapter is the transformative role critical philosophy plays in restoring freedom and reason to the world.Less
This chapter revisits the intellectual resources marshalled by critical international theory. It starts with the Frankfurt School and Max Horkheimer’s distinction between two conceptions of theory—critical and traditional. The chapter then turns to extended discussions of German idealism and historical materialism—in particular, Kant, Hegel, and Marx—to outline the normative and dialectical forms of social philosophy inherited by the Frankfurt School. Arising out of Kant’s transcendental philosophy was a form of critique concerned with the epistemic conditions under which the reasoning subject attains a pure intelligence detached from experience. This provided the context in which Hegel and Marx introduced their dialectical social theories. The chapter’s final section revisits the Kantian Enlightenment, which has exerted such an important influence over critical international theory. Running through the chapter is the transformative role critical philosophy plays in restoring freedom and reason to the world.
Hugh Grady
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198183228
- eISBN:
- 9780191673962
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198183228.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies, Criticism/Theory
This chapter discusses how Shakespeare and his age played a privileged and important part in New Critical literary history and critical practice, whilst recognizing that the methodology and practice ...
More
This chapter discusses how Shakespeare and his age played a privileged and important part in New Critical literary history and critical practice, whilst recognizing that the methodology and practice of this had wider and more general parameters. It begins with a general account of New Criticism, with emphasis on its relations to Modernism and modernization, showing how the early political phase of the founding New Critics survived in displaced form in the criticism. It then examines in this light the highly influential New Critical textbook Understanding Drama's approach to 1 Henry IV as a way into the impact of New Criticism on Shakespeare studies. A section on British analogues briefly charts New Criticism's complex relations with its British sources and counterparts, especially with Scrutiny. This leads into an assessment of the larger cultural affinities of New Criticism, including unexpected, if limited, links to the Frankfurt School, suggestive of possibilities never actualized as New Criticism took its place as the hegemonic professionalized critical discourse in the expanding English departments of the Fifties and Sixties in a completely depoliticized form.Less
This chapter discusses how Shakespeare and his age played a privileged and important part in New Critical literary history and critical practice, whilst recognizing that the methodology and practice of this had wider and more general parameters. It begins with a general account of New Criticism, with emphasis on its relations to Modernism and modernization, showing how the early political phase of the founding New Critics survived in displaced form in the criticism. It then examines in this light the highly influential New Critical textbook Understanding Drama's approach to 1 Henry IV as a way into the impact of New Criticism on Shakespeare studies. A section on British analogues briefly charts New Criticism's complex relations with its British sources and counterparts, especially with Scrutiny. This leads into an assessment of the larger cultural affinities of New Criticism, including unexpected, if limited, links to the Frankfurt School, suggestive of possibilities never actualized as New Criticism took its place as the hegemonic professionalized critical discourse in the expanding English departments of the Fifties and Sixties in a completely depoliticized form.
Simon Mussell
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526105707
- eISBN:
- 9781526132253
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526105707.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Chapter 1 sets out the theoretical terrain on which the wider project is based. It begins by revisiting some of the founding tenets of critical theory in the context of the establishment of the ...
More
Chapter 1 sets out the theoretical terrain on which the wider project is based. It begins by revisiting some of the founding tenets of critical theory in the context of the establishment of the Institute for Social Research in the early twentieth century. The chapter then discusses contemporary theories of affect that have emerged in the past couple of decades as part of the so-called ‘new materialisms’. Taking on board some of the key findings of this recent work on affect, the author also highlights the potential political deficiencies that accompany such accounts, particularly within a growing ‘post-critical’ context. The chapter closes with suggestions as to how early critical theory – read through an affective lens – might provide the social and political grounding that affect theory often lacks, while at the same time noting how theories of affect are invaluable in shedding light on the efficacy of the pre- or extra-rational, so often sacrificed on the altar of political philosophy.Less
Chapter 1 sets out the theoretical terrain on which the wider project is based. It begins by revisiting some of the founding tenets of critical theory in the context of the establishment of the Institute for Social Research in the early twentieth century. The chapter then discusses contemporary theories of affect that have emerged in the past couple of decades as part of the so-called ‘new materialisms’. Taking on board some of the key findings of this recent work on affect, the author also highlights the potential political deficiencies that accompany such accounts, particularly within a growing ‘post-critical’ context. The chapter closes with suggestions as to how early critical theory – read through an affective lens – might provide the social and political grounding that affect theory often lacks, while at the same time noting how theories of affect are invaluable in shedding light on the efficacy of the pre- or extra-rational, so often sacrificed on the altar of political philosophy.
Roger Cotterrell
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198264903
- eISBN:
- 9780191682858
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198264903.003.0010
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
What conceptual and methological issues arise in the attempt to develop a sociologically based moral critique of law? In this context, some important ideas of the German scholar Max Horkheimer on the ...
More
What conceptual and methological issues arise in the attempt to develop a sociologically based moral critique of law? In this context, some important ideas of the German scholar Max Horkheimer on the nature of critical theory can be related to theoretical issues presented by the development of the critical legal studies (CLS) movement in the United States. The conclusion to be drawn is that critical theory and empirical social theory are certainly compatible but critical theory introduces the demand for a ‘moral vision’ to complete and reformulate the projects of empirical social theory. In this respect, critical theory creates certain moral challenges for legal theory which must inform its interaction with the kinds of social theory already considered in previous chapters. The context of American legal education is very different from the context of legal education in Britain. The most fundamental questions about the epistemology, methods, politics, and prospects of CLS are essentially rooted in ones that the central theoreticians of the Frankfurt School faced and discussed at length.Less
What conceptual and methological issues arise in the attempt to develop a sociologically based moral critique of law? In this context, some important ideas of the German scholar Max Horkheimer on the nature of critical theory can be related to theoretical issues presented by the development of the critical legal studies (CLS) movement in the United States. The conclusion to be drawn is that critical theory and empirical social theory are certainly compatible but critical theory introduces the demand for a ‘moral vision’ to complete and reformulate the projects of empirical social theory. In this respect, critical theory creates certain moral challenges for legal theory which must inform its interaction with the kinds of social theory already considered in previous chapters. The context of American legal education is very different from the context of legal education in Britain. The most fundamental questions about the epistemology, methods, politics, and prospects of CLS are essentially rooted in ones that the central theoreticians of the Frankfurt School faced and discussed at length.
Gabriel Rockhill and Alfredo Gomez-Muller (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231151870
- eISBN:
- 9780231526364
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231151870.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This book is comprised of a series of discourses providing critical perspectives on cultural issues involving the politics of culture. The rising importance of culture in politics and morality is ...
More
This book is comprised of a series of discourses providing critical perspectives on cultural issues involving the politics of culture. The rising importance of culture in politics and morality is evident in the fact that several authors have accepted the concept of culture as a useful approach for discussing contemporary politics and society. Generally, there have been two dominant positions: the “clash of civilizations” and “mainstream multiculturalism,” both of which are subject to critiques concerning the expanded notion of culture. The book aims to evaluate the contribution of critical theory to current debates on the idea of culture and other related progressive works, as well as engage political theorists through critical questions inspired by the Frankfurt School.Less
This book is comprised of a series of discourses providing critical perspectives on cultural issues involving the politics of culture. The rising importance of culture in politics and morality is evident in the fact that several authors have accepted the concept of culture as a useful approach for discussing contemporary politics and society. Generally, there have been two dominant positions: the “clash of civilizations” and “mainstream multiculturalism,” both of which are subject to critiques concerning the expanded notion of culture. The book aims to evaluate the contribution of critical theory to current debates on the idea of culture and other related progressive works, as well as engage political theorists through critical questions inspired by the Frankfurt School.
Michael LeMahieu
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199890408
- eISBN:
- 9780199369652
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199890408.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
In the literary response to logical positivism, Ludwig Wittgenstein figures both as inspiration and opposition, as the philosopher of what is the case and as the poet of what is not. Wittgenstein’s ...
More
In the literary response to logical positivism, Ludwig Wittgenstein figures both as inspiration and opposition, as the philosopher of what is the case and as the poet of what is not. Wittgenstein’s contradictory reputation reflects the complexities of his philosophy, particularly the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The text exemplifies the logical positivist philosophy to which postwar American writers responded and at the same time prefigures that very response. In casting Wittgenstein as a positivist, each for their own ends, Rudolf Carnap’s Vienna Circle and Theodor Adorno’s Frankfurt School are surprisingly aligned. Yet with its unsettled combination of logical propositions and mystical aphorisms, the Tractatus refuses to correspond to either group’s description of it. Ironically, it is Adorno’s own concept of negative dialectics that makes legible Wittgenstein’s negative aesthetics, the attempt to show the “nonsense” that cannot be said, and that reveals the ways in which Wittgenstein rejects the very positivism his text makes possible.Less
In the literary response to logical positivism, Ludwig Wittgenstein figures both as inspiration and opposition, as the philosopher of what is the case and as the poet of what is not. Wittgenstein’s contradictory reputation reflects the complexities of his philosophy, particularly the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. The text exemplifies the logical positivist philosophy to which postwar American writers responded and at the same time prefigures that very response. In casting Wittgenstein as a positivist, each for their own ends, Rudolf Carnap’s Vienna Circle and Theodor Adorno’s Frankfurt School are surprisingly aligned. Yet with its unsettled combination of logical propositions and mystical aphorisms, the Tractatus refuses to correspond to either group’s description of it. Ironically, it is Adorno’s own concept of negative dialectics that makes legible Wittgenstein’s negative aesthetics, the attempt to show the “nonsense” that cannot be said, and that reveals the ways in which Wittgenstein rejects the very positivism his text makes possible.
