The Frankfurt School: Critical Theory and Habermas’ Philosophy
The Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School emerged in 1923 when a group of German scientists and intellectuals with Marxist leanings met to conduct sociological research aimed at countering positivist, neopositivist, scientistic, and empiricist theories. The goal was to highlight the shortcomings of these theories and address how advanced technological society and its technical achievements, instead of liberating human beings, had spawned ideological and technical elements that contributed to their alignment. Thus, the ideal of the Enlightenment—the liberation of human beings—had not been met.
Key figures included M. Horkheimer, T.W. Adorno, H. Marcuse, E. Fromm, W. Benjamin, J. Habermas, and A. Schmidt. Their main themes centered around criticism of industrial, technocratic, and unidimensional society. Their goal was to transform society by establishing the right conditions for the emergence of more rational, free, and peaceful human relationships and lifestyles.
Analysis of the Affluent Society
The Frankfurt School philosophers argued that the realm of things takes precedence over people. The myth of having, along with cost-effective and efficient administration and control of wealth and people as producers of wealth, leads society to become uniform (one-dimensional), suppressing critical thinking and alienating individuals.
Traditional Theory vs. Critical Theory
Traditional theory seeks to understand partial aspects of reality, separating them from each other and avoiding a comprehensive view. Critical theory, however, aims to provide a comprehensive valuation and vision of reality, integrating both values and the practical, pragmatic aspects of human existence (theory and praxis).
Critical reason is reconstructive and progressive, pursuing rational aims to achieve the emancipation of human beings by liberating them from domination and oppression prevalent in contemporary societies.
Jürgen Habermas
Habermas is arguably the most important contemporary philosopher among the followers of the Frankfurt School.
Against Positivism
Scientistic positivist theories seek to reduce scientific content exclusively to the physical sciences and mathematics. According to Habermas, knowledge should be grounded in “reconstructive” reason, i.e., a critical rationality that strives to highlight the strengths and inadequacies of current scientific concepts.
Communicative Action
Habermas understands speech as a series of communications through linguistic symbols that bridge reality and discourses. Thus, speech acts are the means through which a society addresses the various problems presented by its reality.
Types of Speech Acts
- Communicative speech acts: serve to understand something.
- Constative speech acts: through language, we assert something as true.
- Truth-speech acts: intend that the speaker is sincere.
- Regulative speech acts: expressed through the regulatory requirements of interpersonal relationships.
Self-Reflection
Habermas defines self-reflection as the reflection of reason upon itself, the reflection on reflection.
In the exercise of self-reflection, Habermas draws an analogy to the psychoanalysis conducted by Freud. In the psychoanalytic process, self-reflection is both the path to understanding and explaining the patient’s neurotic situation, and consequently, their self-healing.
According to Habermas, this approach seeks to reclaim the role assigned to philosophy by the Enlightenment. Under these circumstances, Habermas believes that the philosopher must once again assume the role of guardian of reason, insisting that the main task must be to reflect on reason, seeking to understand the different types of knowledge and activities in their historical context, thus freeing the human subject from all irrational elements (tyranny, slavery, alienation, false opinions).