Synopses & Reviews
This collection brings together essays by Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse, who were key members of the Frankfurt School for Social Research. Their multidisciplinary research on capitalist society led to the developing of critical theory, which is now an established field and research paradigm in political science, philosophy, sociology, literary and cultural studies.
By focusing on epistemology, ontology, and method, this text engages the reader with issues that are fundamental to the work of these thinkers. It introduces key questions that lie at the heart of critical theory, from reflections on the nature of reason and the assessment of the concepts of essence and truth to critiques of positivist methodology and limits of empiricism.
The focal point of the text makes it an essential resource for understanding and teaching critical theory. In addition, it provides easy access to key essays, most of which have been translated specifically for this volume. Subject and Object will interest anyone studying critical theory and the works of the Frankfurt School.
Synopsis
Subject & Object is a thematic collection of classic works by Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse, designed to foreground the authors philosophical concerns, especially in the areas of epistemology, ontology, and method. The volume, which includes lucid introductions to all of the selections, illustrates Frankfurt School approaches to questions such as the nature of reason; the limits of empiricism, pragmatism and Kantian transcendental idealism; the case for materialism; the difficulty of thinking counterfactually; and the ideological character of mainstream social science.
Many of the pieces in the volume are otherwise out of print. Subject & Object will be a resource for social, political, and cultural theorists who may be less familiar with the philosophical aspects of the Frankfurt School, for analytic philosophers who may not have had previous exposure to their work at all, and for anyone wanting access to these seminal texts.
About the Author
Ruth Groff is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Saint Louis University, US. She is the author of Critical Realism, Post-positivism and the Possibility of Knowledge (2007) and the editor of Revitalizing Causality (2008).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part I. Epistemology
- "Means and Ends" - Horkheimer
- "The End of Reason" - Horkheimer
- "A Note on Dialectics" - Marcuse
- "The Possibility of Philosophy" - Adorno
- "Dialectics Not a Standpoint" - Adorno
- "Fragility of Truth" - Adorno
- "Noncontradictoriness Not to be Hypostatized" - Adorno
- "On the Dialectics of Identity" - Adorno
- "Starting Out from the Concept" - Adorno
- "Constellation" - Adorno
- "On the Problem of Truth" - Horkheimer
Part II. Ontology
- "The Concept of Essence" - Marcuse
- "The Indissoluble Something" - Adorno
- "Compulsory Substantiveness" - Adorno
- "Peephole Metaphysics" - Adorno
- "Reversal of the Subjective Reduction" - Adorno
- "Interpreting the Transcendental" - Adorno
- "The Object's Preponderance" - Adorno
- "Kant's Concept of Causality" - Adorno
- "The Plea for Order" - Adorno
- "Subject and Object" - Adorno
Part III. Method
- "Traditional and Critical Theory" - Horkheimer
- "The Latest Attack on Metaphysics" - Horkheimer
- "Critical Theory and Philosophy" - Marcuse
- " Karl Popper and the Problem of Historical Law" - Marcuse
- "Why Philosophy?" -Adorno
Bibliography
Index