PHIL 008 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Frankfurt School, Critical Inquiry, Grand Theory
10 Jun 2020
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Document Summary
Critical theory must be explanatory, practical and normative at the same time it must explain what is wrong with current social reality, identify the actors to change it, and provide clear norms for effecting this change. Identification and change of circumstances that limit human freedom requires interdisciplinary perspective: frankfurt school: transformations of capitalism into real democracy". Critical theory then and now frankfurt schule: grand theory about an emancipation through real democracy, aim: unify critical social science (cf. logical positivism"s ideal of unification) Shifting concerns form developing a normative notion of real democracy": contrasted with actual political systems, based on rationality: individuals of democratic societies could gain conscious control over social processes that affect them. To assessing antidemocratic trends" : rise of fascism and national-socialism. Adopting different points of view: perspective taking (by the inquirer on the social agents/actors that figure in explanations) Rather than single points of view: naturalism: third person explanatory perspective: descriptive and explanatory. technocratic problem-solving strategies.
