From enlightenment to modernity : critical theory and the retreat from praxis
Date
1985
Authors
Sutherland, Robert Colin
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Abstract
This thesis is an interpretive analysis of the tradition of social thought which has come to be known as 'critical theory'. It is argued that the development of this school of thought may be understood as a continuing struggle with the con traditions of the Enlightenment and, in particular, with the internal tensions of Enlightenment reason. In the 1930s critical theory emerged as an attempt to integrate~ critique of ideology directed toward social emancipation, with a normative theory of rationality drawn from the philosophy of German idealism. The collapse of this project in the mid 1940s is examined through an analysis of Dialectic of Enlightenment. This development is read here as an indication of a convergence between critical theory and Max Weber's pessimistic vision of a rationalized world. Since the early 1960s Jurgen Habermas has directed his efforts toward a renewal of critical theory. During his 'Frankfurt period' of the 1960s Habermas attempted to reassemble the 'project of the Enlightenment' through a reworking of the classical motifs of nineteenth century philosophy. In the resulting text Knowledge and Human Interests he defended the notion of an emancipatory interest inherent in acting reason. The criticism generated by this text has led Habermas to completely reconstruct the foundations of critical theory. Thus during his 'Starnberg period' Habermas turned to analytic philosophy in order to work out the 'formal pragmatics' of a theory of discursive rationality. This research programme he has since integrated into a reconstructed theory of societal rationalization. In this reconceptualization of critical theory, which Habermas now refers to as a defense of the 'project of modernity', the influence of Weber is once again drawn into the light. The thesis concludes by indicating how Habermas' theoretical certainty has been gained at the cost of access to praxis. It is not at all clear how the highly idealized notion of discursive rationality presented in The Theory of Communication Action may serve as a guide for political emancipation. In short, critical theory's theoretical shift from the 'project of the Enlightenment' to the 'project of modernity' is accompanied by a retreat from the political problem of emancipatory praxis.