The Cambridge Companion to Critical Theory

389 Pages·2004·3.141 MB·English

by  Fred Rush

the cambridge companion to
CRITICAL THEORY
CriticalTheoryconstitutesoneofthemajorintellectualtra-
ditions of the twentieth century and is centrally important
forphilosophy,politicaltheory,aestheticsandthetheoryof
art,thestudyofmodernEuropeanliteraturesandmusic,the
history of ideas, sociology, psychology, and cultural stud-
ies. In this volume an international team of distinguished
contributors examines the major figures in Critical The-
ory,includingHorkheimer,Adorno,Marcuse,Benjamin,and
Habermas, as well as lesser known but important thinkers
such as Pollock and Neumann. The volume surveys the
shared philosophical concerns that have given impetus to
Critical Theory throughout its history, while at the same
time showing the diversity among its proponents that con-
tributes so much to its richness as a philosophical school.
The result is an illuminating overview of the entire history
ofCriticalTheoryinthetwentiethcentury,anexamination
of its central conceptual concerns, and an in-depth discus-
sionofitsfutureprospects.
othervolumesintheseriesofcambridgecompanions
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The Cambridge Companion to
C R I T I C A L
T H E O RY
Editedby
Fred Rush
UniversityofNotreDame
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contents
List of contributors page ix
Acknowledgments xii
Chronology xiii
Abbreviations xvi
Introduction 1
fred rush
1 Conceptual foundations of early Critical Theory 6
fred rush
2 Benjamin, Adorno, and the decline of the aura 40
michael rosen
3 The dialectic of enlightenment 57
julian roberts
4 The marriage of Marx and Freud: Critical Theory
and psychoanalysis 74
joel whitebook
5 Dialectics and the revolutionary impulse 103
raymond geuss
6 “The dead speaking of stones and stars”:
Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory 139
j. m. bernstein
7 Critique, state, and economy 165
moishe postone
vii
viii Contents
8 The transcendental turn: Habermas’s “Kantian
pragmatism” 194
kenneth baynes
9 The politics of Critical Theory 219
simone chambers
10 Critical Theory and the analysis of contemporary
mass society 248
hauke brunkhorst
11 Critical Theory and poststructuralism:
Habermas and Foucault 280
beatrice hanssen
12 The very idea of a critical social science:
a pragmatist turn 310
stephen k. white
13 A social pathology of reason: on the intellectual
legacy of Critical Theory 336
axel honneth
Select bibliography 361
Index 371
contributors
kenneth baynes isProfessorofPhilosophyandPoliticalScience
atSyracuseUniversity.HeistheauthorofTheNormativeGrounds
ofSocialCriticism:Kant,Rawls,Habermas(SUNYPress,1992)and
the coeditor of After Philosophy (MIT Press, 1986) and Discourse
andDemocracy:EssaysonHabermas’s“BetweenFactsandNorms”
(SUNYPress,2002).
j. m. bernstein is University Distinguished Professor of Phi-
losophy at the New School for Social Research. Among his books
are The Fate of Art: Aesthetic Alienation from Kant to Derrida
and Adorno (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992), Recover-
ing Ethical Life: Ju¨rgen Habermas and the Future of Critical The-
ory (Routledge, 1995), and Adorno: Disenchantment and Ethics
(CambridgeUniversityPress,2001).
hauke brunkhorst isProfessorofSociologyattheUniversityof
Flensburg.HisrecentwritingsincludeHannahArendt(Beck,1999),
Einfu¨hrung in die Geschichte politischer Ideen (Fink/UTB, 2001),
and Solidarita¨t (Suhrkamp, 2002). His books in English are Adorno
andCriticalTheory(UniversityofWalesPress,1999)andSolidarity:
From Civic Friendship Towards a Global Legal Community (MIT
Press,forthcoming).
simone chambers is Associate Professor of Political Science at
theUniversityofToronto.SheistheauthorofReasonableDemoc-
racy: Ju¨rgen Habermas and the Politics of Discourse (Cornell Uni-
versityPress,1996)andhaseditedDeliberation,Democracy,andthe
Media(Rowman&Littlefield,2000)andAlternativeConceptionsof
CivilSociety(PrincetonUniversityPress,2001).
ix
x Listofcontributors
raymond geussisReaderinPhilosophyattheUniversityofCam-
bridge.HeistheauthorofTheIdeaofaCriticalTheory:Habermas
andtheFrankfurtSchool(CambridgeUniversityPress,1981),Moral-
ity, Culture, and History (Cambridge University Press, 1999), His-
toryandIllusioninPolitics(CambridgeUniversityPress,2001),and
PublicGoods,PrivateGoods(PrincetonUniversityPress,2001).
beatrice hanssen is Professor of German at the University of
Georgia,Athens.SheistheauthorofWalterBenjamin’sOtherHis-
tory: Of Stones, Animals, Human Beings, and Angels (University
ofCaliforniaPress,1998),CritiqueofViolence:BetweenPoststruc-
turalismandCriticalTheory(Routledge,2000),andcoeditorofThe
Turn to Ethics (Routledge, 2000). She is also coeditor of the series
Walter Benjamin Studies, which includes the volumes Walter Ben-
jamin and Romanticism (Continuum, 2002) and Walter Benjamin
andtheArcadesProject(Continuum,forthcoming).
axel honneth is Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Frankfurt and the Director of the Institute for Social Research. His
books in English translation include Critique of Power (MIT Press,
1993),TheFragmentedWorldoftheSocial(SUNYPress,1995),and
TheStruggleforRecognition(MITPress,1996).
moishe postone isAssociateProfessorofModernHistoryanda
member of the Committee for Jewish Studies at the University of
Chicago.HeistheauthorofTime,Labor,andSocialDomination:A
Reinterpretation of Marx’s Critical Theory (Cambridge University
Press, 1993) and coeditor of Catastrophe and Meaning: The Holo-
caustandtheTwentiethCentury(UniversityofChicagoPress,2003)
aswellasofBourdieu:CriticalPerspectives(UniversityofChicago
Press,1993).
julian roberts is Professor of Philosophy at the University of
Munich. His books include Walter Benjamin (Macmillan, 1982)
and The Logic of Reflection: German Philosophy in the Twentieth
Century(YaleUniversityPress,1992).
michael rosen isaFellowatLincolnCollege,Oxford.Heisthe
authorofHegel’sDialecticanditsCriticism(CambridgeUniversity
Press, 1982) and On Voluntary Servitude: False Consciousness and
theTheoryofIdeology(HarvardUniversityPress,1996).
Listofcontributors xi
fred rush isAssistantProfessorofPhilosophyattheUniversityof
NotreDame.HehaswrittenseveralarticlesonKant,Hegel,critical
theory,andaesthetics.Heiscompletingabookonthephilosophical
significance of early German Romanticism and its relation to Kant
andKierkegaard.
stephen white is Professor of Politics at the University of
Virginia.AmonghisbooksareTheRecentWorkofJu¨rgenHabermas
(CambridgeUniversityPress,1988),PoliticalTheoryandPostmod-
ernism(CambridgeUniversityPress,1991),andSustainingAffirma-
tion (Princeton University Press, 2000). He is editor of the journal
PoliticalTheoryandofTheCambridgeCompaniontoHabermas.
joel whitebook is on the faculty of the Center for Psychoana-
lytic Training and Research, Columbia University and is a practic-
ing psychoanalyst. He has written Perversion and Utopia: A Study
in Psychoanalysis and Critical Theory (MIT Press, 1995) as well as
numerous articles on critical theory and its relation to Freud and
Marx.