130 | Max Horkheimer: What Makes Critical Theory Critical?

About this episode

The episode discusses Max Horkheimer's essay on the distinctions between traditional and critical theory and their relevance today.

In this episode we talk about Max Horkheimer’s essay “Traditional and Critical Theory”, which serves as a kind of manifesto for the Frankfurt School of Marxist thought. We talk about how he defines these categories, reflect on whether the distinction holds up, and ask ourselves whether we can call ourselves critical theorists in the present. It turns out grasping oneself as part of a historically unfolding social totality is difficult, if you can believe it. Special thanks to our friend...

People in this episode

Hosts: Lillian Cicerchia, Owen Glyn-Williams, Gil Morejón, William Paris

Topics covered

• Critical Theory
• Max Horkheimer
• Frankfurt School
• Marxist thought
• social totality

Keywords

• Max Horkheimer
• Critical Theory
• Frankfurt School
• Marxism
• social totality

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Frankfurt School

Books & works: Traditional and Critical Theory

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