We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
THE UNRESOLVED PROBLEMS OF LATE CRITICAL THEORY.
- Authors
Bernstein, Richard J.
- Abstract
ABSTRACT Martin Jay's sweeping account of reason in Western philosophy provides the context for understanding the crisis that the Frankfurt School thinkers faced when they spoke of the 'eclipse of reason.' In the background of the thinking of the first generation of Frankfurt thinkers such as Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse is a hankering for a more substantive conception of reason that bears affinities with what Hegel called Vernunft (reason), which he contrasted with Verstand (understanding). According to Jay, the first generation of Frankfurt thinkers never quite succeeded in elaborating this substantive concept of reason and grew increasingly pessimistic in the face of the self-destruction of reason. Habermas sought to elaborate a communicative theory of rationality that did not fall into the misleading promises of Hegelian Vernunft but could nevertheless provide a normative basis for the critique of instrumental, strategic, and systems rationality-a normative basis for critical theory. Jay presents an extremely lucid account of Jürgen Habermas's theory of communicative rationality. He concludes by reviewing some of the outstanding problems and questions that have been raised about the adequacy and success of Habermas's project. I seek to do justice to the strengths and weaknesses of Jay's narrative, and I focus on a number of deep, unresolved issues that confront the future of critical theory in its attempt to develop an adequate conception of rationality. I also raise concerns about what precisely is distinctive about critical theory today.
- Subjects
REASON After Its Eclipse: On Late Critical Theory (Book); JAY, Martin; CRITICAL theory; FRANKFURT school of sociology; NONFICTION
- Publication
History & Theory, 2017, Vol 56, Issue 3, p418
- ISSN
0018-2656
- Publication type
Book Review
- DOI
10.1111/hith.12030