Horkheimer's Characterization of "Traditional Theory" (often referred to as "Scientism" or "Positivism") [131]
1. "[A]ssumes that the world is an ensemble of objective and observable facts that the knower passively registers."2. "[I]t presupposes that knowledge consists of propositions that are formulated so as to correspond to these facts and that hence can be regarded as true."
3. "[A]ims at logically joining these propositions in such a way that their systematic interrelations with one another are clearly revealed as standing in seamless logical or mathematical relations of necessity with one another."
Horkheimer's Critique of "Traditional Theory"
1. The legitimacy and coherence of the fact/value distinction must be questioned. One's needs and interests are a determining factor in the choice of facts considered in any study. Thus, a value judgment typically lies behind one's selection of relevant facts.
2. Propositions are socially embedded and must be understood contextually. They are not value-neutral.
3. Theoretical totalities (theories) are problematic and falsely taken in an uncritical manner. [These objections, as summarized in Surber's text, are not well formulated or compelling. It doesn't sound like an accurate characterization of scientific practice which builds in a critical approach to all hypotheses and explanations.]
4. Objectivity of the scientist is not sufficiently critiqued in traditional theory. [132] In particular, Horkheimer claims that science has always been at the service of the dominant culture and has been used for the more efficient exercise and administration of power. Positivism "ultimately effaces human spontaneity and autonomy in the interests of a functional system that is taken to be fully self-justifying and hence rational".
As an antidote we need a critical theory. This critical
theory would be "wholly distrustful of the rules of conduct
with which society as presently constituted provides each of its
members". [132]
To be effective, critical theory must
1. position itself as a persistent critic of positivism, i.e. function as an oppositional discourse to dogmatic empirical social science and "the uncritical acceptance and use of the results of empirical science". (Emphases added.) [132f]2. direct its efforts toward the liberation of human beings from conditions which limit their autonomy. [133]
3. avoid positioning itself as a totalizing alternative discourse, i.e. it must remain self-critical.
4. avoid the dualism and contradiction of opposing the individual to society together with the false objectivity of the social scientist as a privileged legislator of norms for society.
"Since modern society is permeated by contradictions, especially that between the progressive rationalization of society and the autonomy of the individual, critical theory must acknowledge these contradictions and project the conditions for their elimination from out of the concrete historical circumstances in which they exist at any given time." [133]
1. CT assumes greater individual autonomy than most versions of Marxism and rejects historical determinism. "At the core of critical theory is the more Kantian and idealist conviction of human autonomy, which any overarching theory of historical development must ultimately deny." [133]
2. It does not place empirical social science in the idle ideological superstructure but sees it as a potential agent for social change and individual autonomy.
3. It sees the proletariat as less an agent for social change in the 20th Century than other sectors of society.
4. Due to the profound and pervasive influence of culture, in particular the mass media, critical theorists reject the crude base/superstructure model of traditional Marxism as less descriptive of 20th century social relations.
The failure of Marxism and Liberal Humanism constituted a theme
of post-WWII critical theory. (How was the rise of fascism possible?"
[134]
Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947)
Two-sided Thesis: History is characterized by the dialectical
relation between "mythology" and enlightenment.
1. Mythology is an attempt to impose order and control over external nature and irrational human impulses.
2. While mythology is a step toward enlightenment, enlightenment is a move in the direction of a new mythology. [134]
Concept of Reason (Weber) [135]
Borrowing from Weber, the critical theorists emphasized a shift in modern thinking from the teleological reason of the Greeks and medieval Christians to what they called instrumental reason seen as "formal, objective, and value-neutral". This "made any attempt such as that of the Frankfurt School to question the rationality of contemporary society appear irrational, ruled out of court by the prevalent notion of reason as purely instrumental and value neutral". [135]
While liberal humanism gave us the liberty and rights of the individual as opposed to rule of an aristocratic political and religious elite, it allowed the growth of a more subtle and insidious structure.
The effects of instrumental reason are:
1. alienation of humans from nature.2. increasing capitalist exploitation.
3. bureaucratic social systems.
4. positivist and totalizing philosophies.
Reification can be defined as the objectification of values,
ideas, art, and human beings. (Cf. commodity fetishism.) [135f]
These things are then seen as "objects of scientific analysis,
economic consumption, and bureaucratic manipulation".
Totalization is defined as "the tendency of modern enlightenment to extend its knowledge and domination over the entire range of reified human experience and social existence".
Thus, the new mythology of the enlightenment had the aim of reifying, totalizing, and rationalizing all aspects of life and human experience. Modern totalitarianism was seen by Horkheimer and Adorno as the "natural culmination" of the one-sided rationalism of the Enlightenment.
"[T]otalitarianism was nothing other than an extension of the basic aims of the Enlightenment as it established itself as its own mythology." [136]
Furthermore, the triumph of Enlightenment ideals over totalitarianism would not put an end to the "dialectic of Enlightenment", but would result in "ever more reifying and totalizing forms of domination if the basic assumptions were not subject to critical examination. [136]
Thus, the emphasis shifted to contemporary culture rather than
liberal politics or Marxist economics.
How do changes in the production of cultural objects alter those
products and the associated social relations? [137] New developments
in reproductive technology had the effect of undermining the aura,
value, commodification, and autonomy of traditional art works,
which Benjamin saw as liberating new potential for popular participation
in progressive social change. [138]
Cf. issues of authenticity and reproducibility in relation to aura and popular liberation movements.
Frankfurt School critique of Benjamin's view led to a distinction between mass culture and affirmative culture (avant-garde). [140] For Horkheimer and Adorno, the culture industry was also shaped by "enlightenment become mythology" or social control. It produced cultural homogeneity and predictability. [140] [This entire paragraph is worth close analysis.]
Characteristics of affirmative culture:
1. Even as "high art", it calls the tradition itself into question.2. Emphasizes current limitations and potential for domination while helping to envision new, more humane conditions.
3. Challenges the viewer, listener, reader, etc. to construct meaning and significance that sheds light on contemporary experience. [141]
Adorno uses the distinction between manifest content and
latent content to analyze television programs. The function
of TV programming is "psychoanalysis in reverse", i.e.
to reinforce the commercial and collective interests of the dominant
culture.
Adorno identified three primary effects:
Pseudorealism
The projection of pseudoreality back onto the world of one's experience falsifies that experience in the sense that it constitutes a regression to the Oedipal threat. [143] The sublimating effects of laughter help reconcile the viewer to existing conditions.
Standardization
This refers to the fact that programming functions "within a narrow range of set formulas". [143] This is reinforced by a kind of wish fulfillment and projection of fantasy.
Stereotyping
This amounts to accepting limited representations as corresponding
to real human types (pseudopersonalization).
Marcuse's major contributions were:
1. the integration of psychoanalysis and radical political theory2. the formulation of a theory of one-dimensional culture and society.
3. the advocacy of cultural opposition and liberation.
According to Marcuse, the satisfaction of basic needs and cultural
pursuits require a certain necessary repression. Modern
society, however, generates surplus repression in response
to a performance principle, which replaces the reality
principle. "In place of the reality principle, to which
individuals living in any historical period must adjust through
repression, modern society has substituted a performance principle.
That is, modern economic development has made competition, excess
production, and massive consumption needs pursued for their own
sake, independently of the basic needs of the individual."
[145]
This surplus repression must be counteracted by "a revolt of the instincts" ("The Great Refusal"). "Such transformative theory must abandon it s role of merely describing and explaining existing society or designing new but unrealizable utopias. Instead, linking up with other affirmative aspects of art and culture, it must attempt to imagine new, emancipated forms of society based on the possibilities latent in existing society." [146]
Marcuse explained this as a manifestation of repressive desublimation -- the sexualization of all aspects of production and consumption which promotes both pleasure and "domination of the individual by the system....Through the immediate gratification produced by repressive desublimation, advanced industrial societies, in Rousseau's famous words, 'hang garlands of flowers on the iron chains that bind us'." Marcuse felt that ideology was absorbed into the production process, i.e. "ideology and the technological means of production can no longer be meaningfully distinguished from one another, rendering impossible a critique of one" in terms of the other. As a result, the proletariat has become a vehicle for the promotion of capitalist ideology. [147]
"Freedom" shifts from the Liberal Humanist notion of autonomy and self-determination to the choice one has to select from a wide range of commodities (from qualitative to quantitative freedom.)
Repressive Tolerance and Recommodification [appropriation] [149]
The legacy of critical theory includes
1. an eclectic combination of psychoanalysis and social theory.
2. emphasis on the role and contradictions of popular culture.
3. a focus on the potential for social control by both liberal democracies and socialist bureaucracies.
4. the idea that autonomy depends on radical democracy and the humanization of technology.
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© T. R. Quigley, 1998