Critical Theory Today: On the Limits and Relevance of an Intellectual Tradition

Description

This book considers whether critical theory is up to the task of addressing our contemporary crises, including the question of ‘post-truth’ discourse, psycho-social pathologies, the rise of right-wing populism, the Covid-19 pandemic, the anticolonial deficit in critical theory, and the neo-liberal management of the academy. The contributors offer a series of timely and complex reflections on the nature of critical theory, its role in contemporary society, and its various developments since the early twentieth century. In doing so, they analyse a variety of contemporary issues that, through critical reflection, can help us to navigate these problems. This volume seeks to highlight problems and possibilities within this field of thought, and endeavours to contribute towards reconsidering its capabilities and relevance. Acknowledgements About This Book Contents Editors and Contributors About the Editors Contributors 1 On the Crisis of Critique: Reformulating the Project of Critical Theory A Crisis of Critical Theory Post-Metaphysics and Neo-Idealism Paradigm Shift I: The Rise of Cybernetic Society Paradigm Shift II: The Post-Metaphysical Turn Towards a Critical Social Ontology References 2 An Anticolonial Deficit in Frankfurt School Critical Theory: A Need for a Decolonial Turn Introduction The Problem of Decolonizing Frankfurt School Critical Theory Understanding the Decolonial Challenge: Eurocentrism and Frankfurt School Critical Theory’s Anticolonial Deficit Notes References 3 Critical Condition What is the Purpose of Critical Theory? Is Critical Theory Still Possible? Conclusion References 4 Critical Theory, Political Modernity and Sociological Modernity Introduction Critical Theory and Mixed Constitutions Collective Learning in the Democratic Lifeworld, East and West: The Run up to the Velvet Revolutions and the Legacies of the Treaties of Maastricht and Lisbon Social Systems and Systemic Environments: Collective Learning in the Post-1989 Democratic Lifeworld in Question Re-Thinking the Relations Between the Delimiting and Enabling Dimensions of Democratic Statehood After Communicative Action Works Cited 5 Erich Fromm and Contemporary Critical Theory Introduction Contemporary Critical Theory is in Crisis Political Philosophical Social Theoretical Fromm’s Key Interventions Pathological Normalcy Socially Patterned Defects Normative Humanism Fromm as a Rejuvenating Force for Critical Theory Today Lost Marxist Insights Fromm’s Normative-Objectivity Humanist Psychoanalysis Conclusion Notes References 6 The Uses of Marx’s Value-Theoretical Concept of Reproduction for Social Reproduction Theory Introduction A Value-Theoretical Reading of Capital’s Reproduction The Money-Form: The Medium of Reproduction of Capital’s Abstract Forms Interruptions: Duration of Turnover Time Finance Capital and the Reproduction of the Whole of Capital’s Social Relations SRT and Concrete Limits to capital’s Accumulation Conclusion Notes References 7 Abandonment or Liberation? Anorexia, Refusal of Treatment, and the Limits of Proceduralism Introduction Some Data on Anorexia The MCA’s Solution Giordano’s Solution Christman’s Solution Overcoming Proceduralism Fine-Grained Values Dialogical Answerability Conclusion Notes 8 Responding to Precarity: Ethics and Mediation in Butler and Adorno Introduction The Precarity of Wrong Life Ethics and Relationality Insurrectionary Ontology and Social Critique Mediation Constellations Conclusion Notes References 9 Re-thinking Social Transformation: Utopian Consciousness Within Critical Theory—Covid-19, “The New Normal” and “Dreams of a Better Life” Social Critique and Social Transformation in Light of Covid-19 The “New Normal”: The Current Impasse in Critical Theory Brought to Light Ernst Bloch and “Dreams of a Better Life” as a Way Out of the Crisis The “New Normal”: Utopian Consciousness as an Opportunity for Socio-political Change Covid-19 and the Confrontation with Death: From Despair and on Towards Hope Re-thinking Social Transformation: Utopian Consciousness Within Critical Theory Notes References 10 Beyond Post-Truth: Critical Theory and the Possibility of Radical Enlightenment Introduction What is Post-Truth? Post-Truth Theory as a Traditional Theory The Problems with Post-Truth Theory as Traditional Thinking The Limits of “Neutral” Explanation The Myth of Rational Normality The Truth in Post-Truth Beyond Post-Truth: Critical Theory Notes Bibliography 11 Totality, Malaise and Agitation: Towards a Critical Theory of Authoritarian Politics Introduction The Limitations of Contemporary Theoretical Debates About the Populist and Far Right Revisiting the Studies of Fascism by the Early Institute of Social Research Totality: The Systematicity of Social Relationships Malaise: The Ambivalent Experience of Totality Agitation: The Regressive Mobilisation of Malaise Conclusion Notes Bibliography 12 Adorno’s Exaggerations and the Limits of Social Pathology Critique Notes Bibliography 13 Towards a Post-capitalist Horizon of Possibility. Mark Fisher, the Renewal of Critical Theory of Society for the Twenty-First Century Introduction Re-Drawing the Limits of the Possible Critical Theory in Britain The New Left, Cultural Studies, and Popular Modernism 1968–1979: Missed Opportunities Left Melancholia and the Postmodern Interregnum From Capitalist Realism to Post-Capitalist Desires Back to the Future? Beyond Left Melancholia: A Popular Cultural Theory Notes Bibliographys