Sunday, November 19, 2006

Imagination and Reason in Critical Social Theory

"In the following I shall be speaking about imagination and reason in critical social theory. I use the term “critical social theory” in a broad sense. Rather than restricting it to the “Left-Hegelian” tradition commonly associated with the Frankfurt School (that is, with theorists such as Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse and their successors), I use it to refer to any theory that looks critically at social arrangements from the point of view of the obstacles they pose to human flourishing (or that reflects on what it means to do so). Thus, my definition of critical social theory includes, for example, not just the theories of Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth, who position themselves in the Frankfurt School tradition, but also the poststructuralist social criticism of Judith Butler, or of Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau, and metatheoretical reflections on social theory such as those to be found in the work of Charles Taylor."

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Note that Professor Cook requests that her "draft" discussion not be distributed without her permission.

Gary

Ali Rizvi said...

Thanks, Gary,

But how does it apply to my linking to an already uploaded article?

Ali

Konst. Kokarev said...

I'm also trying to explore some ideas of Habermas. If you know some literature on the theme of legitimacy I shall be very grateful.

Konstantin Kokarev

 
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