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Horkheimer and Adorno: The Pioneers of Critical Theory

Horkheimer and Adorno: The Pioneers of Critical Theory

Social Psychology (10th Edition)
Social Psychology (10th Edition)
10th Edition
ISBN:9780134641287
Author:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Publisher:Elliot Aronson, Timothy D. Wilson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers
Chapter1: Introducing Social Psychology
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that sustained the economic system. Their goal was to forge a social philosophical analysis of the current age that would advance an emancipatory critique of capitalist domination. But that critique was now updated and informed by then recent develop- ments in the social and psychological sciences. Horkheimer and Adorno: The Pioneers of Critical Theory One of the foundational works of the Frankfurt School was Adorno and Horkheimer's The Dialectic of Enlightenment, which argued how the promise of emancipation became a form of domination, an analysis based on Marx's writings on alienation and ideol- ogy.¹ Written during their exile from Nazi Germany and World War II, while living in the United States, the elite German intellectuals never felt comfortable in the land of mass conformity, anti-intellectualism, crass commercialism bordering on huckster- ism, and its lowbrow popular culture. There was always a fear that the United States itself might turn fascist; thus, the book often embraced pessimism. Yet as Adorno later stated, philosophy was needed. Domination was still present and philosophy keeps the spirit of critique alive that would encourage resistance and transcendence. The book focused on the cultural logic of twentieth-century modernity, the privileging of rationality, "Instrumental Reason," and the science and technology that had shaped capitalist ideology. Horkheimer and Adorno attempted to resurrect Marx's critique of ideology in gen- eral and the specifics of "commodity fetishism" in which the social relationships that produced the commodity form were reduced to things with abstract value. A central theme of their critique, echoing Nietzsche, argued that the progressive Enlightenment values of liberty, equality, democracy, and brotherhood actually served to hide, yet maintain, new, modern forms of domination, hierarchy, and intolerance that dehu- manized people, truncated human potential, and led to new forms of immiseration. The Enlightenment had promised freedom, liberation from fear, and the emancipa- tion of humanity from domination that had been sustained by ignorance, superstition, and/or the "God ordained" doctrines of the feudal church-state elite that normalized the relationships of the aristocrats and peasants. Notwithstanding its emancipatory promise, the Enlightenment (with its celebrations of Reason instrumentalized) had ambivalent, dialectical consequences and itself became problematic based upon new forms of domination, (1) over nature, (2) domination from within, and (3) the domi- nation of some people, the bourgeoisie, over others, the workers.
Transcribed Image Text:that sustained the economic system. Their goal was to forge a social philosophical analysis of the current age that would advance an emancipatory critique of capitalist domination. But that critique was now updated and informed by then recent develop- ments in the social and psychological sciences. Horkheimer and Adorno: The Pioneers of Critical Theory One of the foundational works of the Frankfurt School was Adorno and Horkheimer's The Dialectic of Enlightenment, which argued how the promise of emancipation became a form of domination, an analysis based on Marx's writings on alienation and ideol- ogy.¹ Written during their exile from Nazi Germany and World War II, while living in the United States, the elite German intellectuals never felt comfortable in the land of mass conformity, anti-intellectualism, crass commercialism bordering on huckster- ism, and its lowbrow popular culture. There was always a fear that the United States itself might turn fascist; thus, the book often embraced pessimism. Yet as Adorno later stated, philosophy was needed. Domination was still present and philosophy keeps the spirit of critique alive that would encourage resistance and transcendence. The book focused on the cultural logic of twentieth-century modernity, the privileging of rationality, "Instrumental Reason," and the science and technology that had shaped capitalist ideology. Horkheimer and Adorno attempted to resurrect Marx's critique of ideology in gen- eral and the specifics of "commodity fetishism" in which the social relationships that produced the commodity form were reduced to things with abstract value. A central theme of their critique, echoing Nietzsche, argued that the progressive Enlightenment values of liberty, equality, democracy, and brotherhood actually served to hide, yet maintain, new, modern forms of domination, hierarchy, and intolerance that dehu- manized people, truncated human potential, and led to new forms of immiseration. The Enlightenment had promised freedom, liberation from fear, and the emancipa- tion of humanity from domination that had been sustained by ignorance, superstition, and/or the "God ordained" doctrines of the feudal church-state elite that normalized the relationships of the aristocrats and peasants. Notwithstanding its emancipatory promise, the Enlightenment (with its celebrations of Reason instrumentalized) had ambivalent, dialectical consequences and itself became problematic based upon new forms of domination, (1) over nature, (2) domination from within, and (3) the domi- nation of some people, the bourgeoisie, over others, the workers.
Toward a Critical Theory of Society The Critical Theorists undertook a number of major philosophical and empirical investigations producing hundreds of books, articles, and notes. Given the breadth of their concerns, we can just note what may be relevant for sociological perspectives, beginning with the sources and formation of knowledge, sometimes considered the facts-values problem. How we see, construct, and interpret the world, and, thus, act accordingly, is shaped by our historical context and our social position in society- namely class, race, gender, etc. How then do we select or create our knowledge of the world? As philosophers trained in the traditions of German Idealism, the critical theo- rists argued that people actively constructed their worlds (Kant). But while people's views of the world were socially constructed, they nevertheless contained embedded "invisible" ruling class ideologies that disposed seeing the world in certain ways that sustained class domination (Marx). More specifically, whereas for the eighteenth- century philosophers of the Enlightenment like Kant, Reason promised freedom and liberation from domination, superstition and ignorance; instead, Reason, became “instrumentalized” as part of the ruling class ideology, oriented to attain particular political and economic goals, namely power and profits, while indifferent to the dehu- manizing consequences of those goals. The logic of the physical sciences, what Weber called "functional or purposive reason," and what Horkheimer and Adorno termed "Instrumental Reason," became the dominant form of Reason, seeking to most effi- ciently foster science, commerce, and capitalist profits, as well as administer public or private institutions. This logic reduced people and relationships to objects and entities that produced and/or consumed commodities, and, in either case, they created great wealth for the capitalist classes. Reason, then, served ideological functions, distorting consciousness and eroding critique, as well as celebrating capitalist “modernity" as benevolent, as desirable, and as "progress" by rendering production, administration, and even war and genocide more efficient. But when applied to the human sciences and/or administration, Reason served the goals of capitalist domination through the logic of scientific objectivity and rationality which fostered passivity and uncritical acceptance of existing social relationships. By considering the importance of culture, especially in their ideological critique of Reason, the Frankfurt scholars initiated a "cultural Marxism" focused on the critique of capitalist ideology and mass psychology
Transcribed Image Text:Toward a Critical Theory of Society The Critical Theorists undertook a number of major philosophical and empirical investigations producing hundreds of books, articles, and notes. Given the breadth of their concerns, we can just note what may be relevant for sociological perspectives, beginning with the sources and formation of knowledge, sometimes considered the facts-values problem. How we see, construct, and interpret the world, and, thus, act accordingly, is shaped by our historical context and our social position in society- namely class, race, gender, etc. How then do we select or create our knowledge of the world? As philosophers trained in the traditions of German Idealism, the critical theo- rists argued that people actively constructed their worlds (Kant). But while people's views of the world were socially constructed, they nevertheless contained embedded "invisible" ruling class ideologies that disposed seeing the world in certain ways that sustained class domination (Marx). More specifically, whereas for the eighteenth- century philosophers of the Enlightenment like Kant, Reason promised freedom and liberation from domination, superstition and ignorance; instead, Reason, became “instrumentalized” as part of the ruling class ideology, oriented to attain particular political and economic goals, namely power and profits, while indifferent to the dehu- manizing consequences of those goals. The logic of the physical sciences, what Weber called "functional or purposive reason," and what Horkheimer and Adorno termed "Instrumental Reason," became the dominant form of Reason, seeking to most effi- ciently foster science, commerce, and capitalist profits, as well as administer public or private institutions. This logic reduced people and relationships to objects and entities that produced and/or consumed commodities, and, in either case, they created great wealth for the capitalist classes. Reason, then, served ideological functions, distorting consciousness and eroding critique, as well as celebrating capitalist “modernity" as benevolent, as desirable, and as "progress" by rendering production, administration, and even war and genocide more efficient. But when applied to the human sciences and/or administration, Reason served the goals of capitalist domination through the logic of scientific objectivity and rationality which fostered passivity and uncritical acceptance of existing social relationships. By considering the importance of culture, especially in their ideological critique of Reason, the Frankfurt scholars initiated a "cultural Marxism" focused on the critique of capitalist ideology and mass psychology
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