Programa

Day 1
Class 1: History and structure of the Frankfurt School, leading figures (Horkheimer, Adorno); brief overview of the Marxist tradition
Reading: Marx-Engels: Manifesto of the Communist Party

Class 2: Horkheimer’s initial project: interdisciplinary Marxism as critical theory of capitalism; inclusion of psychology and theory of culture as keys to understanding capitalism. Horkheimer’s critical theory: interdisciplinary Marxist social theory; the critique of positivism; traditional reactionary theory versus critical progressive theory
Reading: Horkheimer: Traditional and critical theory.

Day 2
Class 3: Marcuse’s theory of affirmative culture; Marx’s treatment of culture: the base-superstructure model; culture as stabilizing factor. Benjamin’s theory of the work of art in modern times; the conception of the aura; art and politics
Reading: Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility
Class 4: Benjamin’s conception of history – messianic moments and critique of progress; the Arcades project; Horkheimer – Adorno: Dialectic of Enlightenment; historical and political context of the publication (1944): World War II; concept of Enlightenment as a critique of reason; the historical epoch of Enlightenment; domination as the essence of reason, nature as the object of domination; forms of Enlightenment
Reading: Horkheimer – Adorno: The Concept of Enlightenment.

Day 3
Class 5: Alienation in Horkheimer and Adorno; overview of forerunners (Rousseau, Marx, Lukács); culture industry; Adorno’s theory on popular culture; Adorno’s late philosophy of art in the Aesthetic theory
Reading: Horkheimer-Adorno: The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception

Class 6: The late Marcuse; summary of the first generation of critical theory: social philosophy without normative political philosophy. Second generation of critical theory: Jürgen Habermas’ The Theory of Communicative Action; social philosophy with normative foundations
Reading: Jürgen Habermas: The Theory of Communicative Action I, pp. 84-101.

Day 4
Class 7: Habermas’s conception of power; procedural democracy and civil society
Reading: Habermas, Jürgen: Three Normative Models of Democracy
Class 8: Recent developments: Axel Honneth and the problem of recognition; criticisms on the Frankfurt School; summarizing all-round discussion
Reading: Honneth: Reification as Forgetfulness of Recognition

Teaching method:
seminar course including the discussion of the required readings

Benjamin, Walter: The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility. In: Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility, and Other Writings on Media. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard Belknap Press. 2008.
Benjamin, Walter: On the Concept of History. http://members.efn.org/~dredmond/ThesesonHistory.html
Habermas, Jürgen: The Theory of Communicative Action. Vol. I. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984.
Habermas, Jürgen: Three Normative Models of Democracy. In: Constellations. Volume 1, Issue 1 December 1994, pp. 1-10.
Honneth, Axel: Reification as Forgetfulness of Recognition. In: Axel Honneth: Reification. A new Look at an old Idea. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 52-63.
Honneth, Axel: Paths of Renewal (1): Socialism as Historical Experimantalism. In: Axel Honneth: The Idea of Socialism. Towards a Renewal. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2017. pp. 51-75.
Horkheimer, Max: The Present Situation of Social Philosophy and the Tasks of an Institute for Social Research. In: Max Horkheimer: Between Philosophy and Social Science. Selected Early Writings. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press, 1993. pp. 1-14.
Horkheimer, Max: Traditional and critical theory. In: Max Horkheimer: Critical Theory: Selected Essays. New York: Continuum Press, 1999. pp. 188–243.
Horkheimer, Max – Adorno, Theodor W.: The Concept of Enlightenment. In: Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002, pp. 1-34.
Horkheimer, Max – Adorno, Theodor W.: The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. In: Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002. pp. 94-136.
Lukács, George: The Phenomenon of Reification. In: George Lukács: History and Class Consciousness. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press, 1971. https://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/history/hcc05.htm
Marcuse, Herbert: The Affirmative Character of Culture. In: Herbert Marcuse: Negations. Essays in Critical Theory. London: MayFly, 2009. p. 65-98. (more editions)
Marcuse, Herbert: The Historical Limits of the Established Reality Principle. In: Marcuse: Eros and Civilization. Boston (Mass.) Beacon Press,1955, pp. 129-139.
Marx, Karl – Engels, Friedrich: The Communist Manifesto. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/

Recommended readings:
Held, David: Introduction to Critical Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1980.
Olay, Csaba: Alienation. http://real.mtak.hu/152445/1/Csaba-Olay-Alienation.pdf
Rush, Fred (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Critical Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Wiggershaus, Rolf: The Frankfurt School. Its History, Theories, and Political Significance. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT Press, 1995.