Course Description: This course explores a tradition of thinkers, methods, and ideas associated with Frankfurt School Critical Theory, a humanistic project of social, political, and cultural critique that emerged in the first half of the Twentieth Century and continues to thrive today. Descended primarily from Kantian, Hegelian, and Marxian thought, critical theory aims to formulate a normative theory of society as the basis for social critique, one that guides emancipation from domination and political transformation. Critical, then, in the sense of a critique of knowledge that examines the limits and powers of human reason. In the aftermath of the Holocaust and under conditions of late capitalism, the idea of a philosophical, critical theory of society took on a new salience and urgency. Accordingly, Frankfurt School thinkers attempted to formulate a critical social philosophy that combined a critique of the contradictions, paradoxes, and pathologies of late capitalist society with a philosophical critique of concepts, aiming toward emancipation and social transformation. This course will serve as an introduction to Frankfurt School Critical Theory and attempt to evaluate the normative and conceptual claims put forth by thinkers associated with the movement. Some topics we will consider include the historical development of this influential school, its critique of enlightenment and instrumental rationality, the critique of capitalism, the critique of culture and its relation to art and aesthetics, and whether or not ethical life is possible under contemporary conditions of barbarism.
