Search results for "critical theory"
showing 10 items of 37 documents
Ecological Sensibility: Recovering Axel Honneth’s Philosophy of Nature in the Age of Climate Crisis
2020
What is “critical” about critical theory? I claim that, to be “critical enough”, critical theory’s future depends on being able to handle today’s planetary climate crisis, which presupposes a philo...
Discourse analysis as immanent critique: Possibilities and limits of normative critique in empirical discourse studies
2016
Although discourse analysts often conceive of their work as critical, there is little theoretical discussion regarding the possibility of normative critique in the scientific community of discourse analysis. Rarely are the normative grounds and normative scope of such a critique clear. Thus, this article attempts to find theoretically robust and practical answers to the following question: ‘How is a normative critique possible?’ In seeking my answer, I first provide a short overview of the possibilities of normative critique in critical discourse analysis. Second, I offer an argument in favour of immanent critique while explaining both its advantages and its theoretical and practical probl…
Heterogeneous knowledge: Trends in German discourse analysis against an international background
2011
This contribution maps the complex field of discourse analysis in Germany by situating its major currents and putting them in historical perspective. In a first step, it presents the major intellectual sources, such as (post-)structuralism, pragmatism/interactionism as well as hermeneutics, which have served as a backdrop for the establishment of discourse analysis as an interdisciplinary field since the 1980s. In a second step, it takes a closer look at the intellectual conjunctures in the social sciences such as Critical Theory and systems theory before turning to the discourse analytical tendencies that have emerged since the 1980s in the light of Foucault's reception in Germany. Finally…
07. Social freedom in contemporary capitalism: A reconstruction of Axel Honneth’s normative approach to the economy
2015
This paper discusses two related issues, namely how to adequately describe the economy within the framework of a critical social theory, and how to understand the interrelation between the socio-economic and political dimensions of democracy. Concerning the first issue Honneth stresses the moral quality of social integration, and concerning the second issue he develops a conception of ‘democratic Sittlichkeit.’ In reconstructing these issues, both the promises and problems of Honneth’s work for analyzing and criticizing contemporary developments in the economy are explored. The paper concludes that the unresolved challenge for Honneth is not to succumb to a nostalgic return to 19th century …
El análisis marxista de las necesidades sociales
2018
The disappearance of the so-called «real socialism» has concealed the validity of the Marxist analysis of social reality. One of the sets of hypotheses that has best maintained its heuristic capacity is the Marxist theory of needs. The Marxist hypotheses have been developed in debate with other conventional conceptions. Currently, feminism and the ecological analysis of needs are renewing the views of Heller and Habermas.
Who Is Ill When a Society Is Ill?
2021
This chapter gives an overview of four different approaches to social pathologies, which are present in contemporary critical social theory, and analyses their social-ontological commitments. The different approaches can be divided into two camps. The ‘thin sense’ of social pathology focuses on social wrongs, and the socially caused and pervasive suffering of individuals. The ‘thick sense’ of social pathology, in turn, claims that society is its own entity, or a whole, which can be ill. This chapter discloses the ontological commitments behind different conceptions of social pathology in order to highlight what difference these commitments make in relation to the critical potential of socia…
Tra Nietzsche e Auschwitz
2019
Adorno's thought can be considered like an attempt, after Nietzsche, to save a form of critical-negative philosophy. Adorno, and more in general Critical Theory, have to be thought like alternative to the several form of postnietzscheian philosophy from Heidegger to Foucault and postmodernist thinkers. However, the internal developments of the Frankfurt School (Habermas, Honneth) shed light on some limits of Adorno's thought.
Il paradigma honnethiano del riconoscimento: interazione, antropogenesi e normatività
2017
"Reification" demonstrates a number of discontinuities with Honneth’s earlier and later works and constitutes a bold attempt to ground a social normative theory on ontological and anthropological grounds. In order to respect the importance of this effort, I try to reconcile some of the more incompatible aspects of this work by pointing to the deep unity of the Honnethian path as a whole. First, I focus on the status of recognition itself, in order to reveal the unity of thought behind the different versions proposed by Honneth. Then, I concentrate on his references to psychoanalysis and evolutionary psychology, in an attempt to bring together the ideas of symbiosis and neonatal imitation. T…
Critical Theory Applied to Media Literacy
2019
Traditionally, one of the fundamental objectives of media literacy (ML) has been the development of the ability to exercise critical thinking about the media, unmask their “naturalness,” and bring to surface their ideologies and values. However, when we move from the abstract level of critical theory to the messy and complex practices enacted in educational contexts, this broad political goal, along with its claim about the “liberating” and “empowering” effect of the critical mind, is flawed with limitations and contradictions. Although the need remains—and is as urgent and vital as ever—to develop critical skills and attitudes, it is also necessary to graft critical theory onto the learnin…
The meaning of critic and political responsibility in Iris M. Young
2013
The meaning of critic and political responsibility in Iris Marion Young This article aims to show how the conception of «critic» in Iris Marion Young is to articu- late the critical theory of society with the phenomenological analysis. This is essential to consider that injustice is based on «oppression» and defend the «political responsibility» to fight injustices. This articulation between critical theory and phenomenological analysis can be seen in her descriptions of the tensions between the structural and the immediate ways to achieve justice. If oppression is the fundamental form of injustice, political respon- sibility is the key to understanding her proposal to seek it as a way to m…