What is Critical Theory? Its ideas, objectives and main authors

These philosophical and social science perspectives seek to understand society in order to improve it.

Critical theory is a broad field of study that emerged in the first half of the twentieth century and quickly expanded to the analysis of various features of society.It quickly expanded into the analysis of different characteristics of contemporary societies, both philosophically, historically and politically.

Due to the context in which it emerges, and the proposals developed, critical theory has an important impact on the production of scientific knowledge and its potential in the social dynamics of domination and emancipation.

In the following we will see in an introductory way what critical theory is, where it comes from and what are some of its main scopes and objectives.

Critical theory and the political value of knowledge production.

The term Critical Theory groups together a set of studies coming from several generations of philosophers and social theorists in Western Europe.. This is related to the last ones ascribed to the Frankfurt School, an intellectual movement of Marxist, Freudian and Hegelian tradition founded in Germany at the end of the 1920s.

Two of the greatest exponents of the first generation of this school are Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno. In fact, Horkheimer's 1937 work, called "Traditional Theory and Critical Theory" is recognized as one of the foundational works of these studies.

In the second half of the 20th century, philosophers such as Herbert Marcuse and Jürgen Habermas continued the work of critical theory in a second generation of the Frankfurt School, extending their interests to the analysis of various problems of contemporary society.

The latter emerges in a context where different social movements were already struggling for the same thing. In fact, although in the academic context the development of this theory is attributed to the Frankfurt School, in practical terms any social or theoretical movement that falls within the objectives described above could be considered a critical perspective, or critical theory. Such is the case, for example, of feminist or decolonial theories and movements..

In general terms, critical theory is distinguished as a philosophical approach that articulates with fields of study such as ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of history and social sciences. In fact, it is characterized precisely because it is based on a reciprocal relationship between philosophy and the social sciences.

Background and relationship between philosophy and social sciences

The academic development of critical theory is related to three of the theoretical antecedents of critical theory: Marx, Freud and Hegel.

On the one hand, Hegel was recognized as the last thinker of the modern era capable of historical tools for the understanding of humanity. for the understanding of humanity.

On the other hand, Marx made an important critique of capitalism, and at the same time, he defended overcoming purely theoretical philosophy, defended overcoming purely theoretical philosophy to give it a practical meaning..

Sigmund Freud, speaking of a "subject of the unconscious", brought important criticisms to the predominance of modern reason, as well as to the idea of the undivided subject (the "unconscious subject"). the idea of the undivided subject (the individual) of the same epoch..

Thus, reason had thus become historicized and socialized, in an important link with ideology.This ended up generating important philosophical critiques, but also a broad relativism and skepticism about normativity, ethics and different forms of life.

Part of what critical theory contributes in this context is a less skeptical view of the same. While society and the individual are the product of a historical and relative construction process, in this process there is also a place for questioning the norms of the individual. there is also room for questioning norms (and generate new ones).

Without this questioning, and if everything is considered relative, it would be difficult to produce a transformation of both history and social conditions. This is how the production of knowledge in the social sciences is finally linked to the philosophical project of social critique.

Breaks with traditional theory

The development of critical theory implies several ruptures with traditional theory. In principle, because the production of knowledge in critical theory has an important socio-political component: beyond describing or explaining phenomena, the intention is to value these phenomena, and from this, to understand the conditions of domination and promote social transformation, to understand the conditions of domination and to promote social transformation.. That is to say, the production of scientific knowledge has a political and moral sense, and not a purely instrumental one.

Likewise, it distances itself from the project of scientism and objectivity that had dominated the that had dominated the production of knowledge in the social sciences (which, in turn, came from the natural sciences). In fact, in its most classical perspective, the object of critical theory is human beings themselves, understood as producers of their historical way of life. The object (of study) is at the same time the subject of knowledgeand therefore agent in the reality in which it lives.

Classical criteria of critical theory

Horkheimer said that a critical theory had to fulfill three main criteria: on the one hand, it had to be explanatory (of social reality, especially in terms of power). On the other hand, it had to be practical, that is, it had to recognize subjects as agents of their own context and identify their potential to influence and transform that reality.

Finally, it had to be normative, in that it had to make clear how we can form a critical perspective and delimit attainable objectives.. At least in its first generation, and given its Marxist tradition, the latter was primarily focused on the analysis and transformation of capitalism towards real democracy. As critical theory develops within different disciplines, the nuances and diversity of aspects it studies vary.

Interdisciplinarity

This could not be achieved through a single discipline or body of studies, as had been the case in much of traditional social science theory. On the contrary, interdisciplinarity should be promotedIn this way, it would be possible to gather information on the psychological, cultural, social and institutional elements involved in the current conditions of life. Only in this way would it be possible to understand traditionally divided processes (such as structure and agency) and give way to a critical perspective of the same conditions.

Bibliographical references:

• Bohman, J. (2005). Critical Theory. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved October 05, 2018. Available at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/#1.
• Fuchs, C. (2015). Critical Theory. The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication. Retrieved 05 October. Available at http://fuchs.uti.at/wp-content/CT.pdf.