The critique of power : reflective stages in a critical social theory
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The critique of power : reflective stages in a critical social theory
（Studies in contemporary German social thought）
MIT Press, 1991
1st MIT Press ed
- : [hbk]
- : pbk
- Other Title
-
Kritik der Macht : Reflexionsstufen einer kritischen Gesellschafttheorie
Related Bibliography 1 items
Available at / 37 libraries
-
No Libraries matched.
- Remove all filters.
Note
Translation of: Kritik der Macht. Frankfurt am Main : Suhrkamp, 1985
Includes bibliographical references (p. [305]-334) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: [hbk] ISBN 9780262082020
Description
Axel Honneth's "Critique of Power" is an interpretation of the history of critical theory, which clarifies its central problems and emphasizes the "social" factors that should provide that theory with a normative and practical orientation. Honneth focuses on the dialogue between French and German social theory that was beginning at the time of Michel Foucault's death. It traces the common roots of the work of Foucault and Jurgen Habermas to a basic text of the last generation of critical theorists - Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's "Dialectic of Enlightenment" - and draws from this connection the outline of a programme that might untie and surpass their seemingly irreconcilable methods of critiquing power structures. In doing so, Honneth provides a constructive and nonpolemical framework for comparisons between the two theorists. And he presents his own interpretation of Foucault's analysis of social systems. Honneth traces the internal contradictions in critical theory through an analysis of Horkheimer's early programmatic writings, the "Dialectic of Enlightenment" and Adorno's later social theoretical writings.
He shows how Habermas and Foucault in their distinctive ways reinserted the social world into critical theory but argues that neither operation has been wholly successful. His analysis redirects critical social theory in ways that can draw on the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of the two approaches.
Table of Contents
- Part 1 The incapacity for social analysis - aporias of critical theory: Horkheimer's original idea - the sociological deficit of critical theory
- the turn to the philosophy of history in the "Dialectic of Enlightenment" - a critique of the domination of nature
- Adorno's theory of society - the definitive represssion of the social. Part 2 The rediscovery of the social - Foucoult and Habermas: Foucault's historical analysis of discourse - the paradoxes of a semiological approach to the history of knowledge
- from the analysis of discourse to the theory of power - struggle as the paradigm of the social
- Foucoult's theory of society - a systems-theoretic dissolution of the "Dialectic of Enlightenment"
- Habermas' anthropology of knowledge - the theory of knowledge-constitutive interests
- two competing models of the history of the species - understanding as the paradigm of the social
- Habermas' theory of society - a transformation of the "Dialectic of Enlightenment" in the light of the theory of communication.
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780262581288
Description
In this rich interpretation of the history of critical theory, Axel Hormeth clarifies critical theory's central problems and emphasizes the social factors that should provide it with a normative and practical orientation.
Axel Honneth's Critique of Power is a rich interpretation of the history of critical theory, which clarifies its central problems and emphasizes the "social" factors that should provide that theory with a normative and practical orientation.
Honneth focuses on the dialog between French and German social theory that was beginning at the time of Michel Foucault's death. It traces the common roots of the work of Foucault and Jurgen Habermas to a basic text of the last generation of critical theorists-Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment-and draws from this connection the outline of a program that might unite and surpass their seemingly irreconcilable methods of critiquing power structures. In doing so, Honneth provides a constructive and nonpolemical framework for comparisons between the two theorists. And he presents a novel interpretation of Foucault's analysis of social systems.
Honneth traces the internal contradictions in critical theory through an analysis of Horkheimer's early programmatic writings, the Dialectic of Enlightenment, and Adorno's later social-theoretical writings. He shows how Habermas and Foucault in their distinctive ways reinserted the social world into critical theory but argues that neither operation has been wholly successful. His cogent analysis redirects critical social theory in ways that can draw on the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of the two approaches.
by "Nielsen BookData"