The works of the Frankfurt School are to be understood in the context of the intellectual and practical objectives of
critical theory. In "Traditional and Critical Theory" (1937),
Max Horkheimer defined critical theory as social critique intended to effect sociological change and realize intellectual emancipation, through an enlightenment that is not dogmatic in its assumptions. Critical theory analyzes the true significance of
the ruling understandings (the
dominant ideology) generated in bourgeois society to show that the dominant ideology misrepresents
how human relations occur in the
real world and how capitalism justifies and legitimates the domination of people. According to the theory of
cultural hegemony, the dominant ideology is a ruling-class narrative that provides an explanatory justification for the current power structure of society. Nonetheless, the story told through
the ruling understandings conceals as much as it reveals about society. The task of the Frankfurt School was the sociological analysis and interpretation of areas of social relations that Marx did not discuss in the 19th century—especially the
base and superstructure aspects of capitalist society. Horkheimer opposed critical theory to
traditional theory, wherein the word
theory is used in the positivistic sense of
scientism, as a purely observational mode that finds and establishes
scientific law (generalizations) about the real world. Social sciences differ from natural sciences because their scientific generalizations cannot be readily derived from experience. The researcher's understanding of a social experience is always filtered through their biases. What the researcher does not understand is that they operate within an historical and ideological context. The results for the theory being tested would conform to the ideas of the researcher rather than the facts of the experience proper; in "Traditional and Critical Theory" (1937), Horkheimer said: For Horkheimer, the methods of investigation applicable to the social sciences cannot imitate the
scientific method applicable to the
natural sciences. In that vein, the theoretical approaches of
positivism and
pragmatism, of
neo-Kantianism and
phenomenology failed to surpass the ideological constraints that restricted their application to social science, because of the inherent logico–mathematic prejudice that separates theory from actual life, i.e. such methods of investigation seek a logic that is always true, and independent of and without consideration for continuing human activity in the field under study. He felt that the appropriate response to such a dilemma was the development of a critical theory of Marxism. Horkheimer believed the problem was
epistemological saying "we should reconsider not merely the scientist, but the knowing individual, in general." Unlike
orthodox Marxism, which applies a template to critique and to action, critical theory is self-critical, with no claim to the
universality of absolute truth. As such, it does not grant primacy to matter (
materialism) or consciousness (
idealism), because each epistemology distorts the reality under study to the benefit of a small group. In practice, critical theory is outside the philosophical strictures of traditional theory; however, as a way of thinking and of recovering humanity's self-knowledge, critical theory draws investigational resources and methods from Marxism. According to Hegel, human history can be reconstructed to show that what is rational in reality results from the overcoming of past contradictions. It is an intelligible process of human activity, the , which is the
idea of progress towards a specific human condition; namely, the actualization of human freedom. However, the
problem of future contingents (considerations about the future) did not interest Hegel, for whom philosophy cannot be
prescriptive and normative, because philosophy comprehends only in hindsight. The study of history is limited to descriptions of past and present human realities. Marx's theory follows a
materialist conception of history and
geographic space, where the development of the productive forces is the primary motive force for historical change. The social and material
contradictions inherent to capitalism must lead to its negation, which, according to this theory, will be the replacement of capitalism with
communism, a new, rational form of society. Marx used dialectical analysis to uncover the contradictions in the predominant ideas of society, and in the social relations to which they are linked—exposing the underlying struggle between opposing forces. Only by becoming aware of the dialectic (i.e., attaining
class consciousness) of such opposing forces in a power struggle can men and women intellectually liberate themselves and change the existing social order through social progress. The Frankfurt School understood that a dialectical method could only be adopted ; if they adopted a self-correcting method—a dialectical method that would enable the correction of previous, false interpretations of the dialectical investigation. Accordingly, critical theory rejected the
historicism and materialism of orthodox Marxism.
Critique of capitalist ideology Dialectic of Enlightenment Adorno and
Horkheimer's
Dialectic of Enlightenment, written during the Institute's exile in America, was published in 1944. While retaining many Marxist insights, this work shifted emphasis from a critique of the material forces of production to a critique of the social and ideological forces brought about by early
capitalism. The
Dialectic of Enlightenment uses the
Odyssey as a paradigm for their analysis of
bourgeois consciousness. In this work, Adorno and Horkheimer introduce many themes that are central to subsequent
social thought. Their exposition of the
domination of nature as a central characteristic of
instrumental rationality and its application within the capitalism of the
post-Enlightenment era was made long before
ecology and
environmentalism became popular concerns. They claim that
Instrumental rationality is the new means of cultural reproduction within the mechanical age. It is a fusion of domination and technological rationality that brings all of external and internal nature under the power of the human subject. In the process, the subject gets swallowed up, and no social force analogous to the
proletariat can be identified that could enable the subject to emancipate itself. They contend that, at a time when it appears that reality itself has become the basis for ideology, the greatest contribution that critical theory can make is to explore the dialectical contradictions of individual subjective experience, on the one hand, and to preserve the truth of theory, on the other. Even dialectical progress is put into doubt: "Its truth or untruth is not inherent in the method itself, but in its intention in the historical process." This intention must be oriented toward integral freedom and happiness: "The only philosophy which can be responsibly practiced in face of despair is the attempt to contemplate all things as they would present themselves from the standpoint of redemption." From a sociological point of view, Adorno and Horkheimer's works demonstrate an ambivalence concerning the ultimate source of social domination, an ambivalence that gave rise to the "pessimism" of critical theory about the possibility of human emancipation and freedom. This ambivalence was rooted in the historical circumstances in which the work was originally produced, in particular, the rise of
Nazism,
state capitalism, and
mass culture as entirely new forms of social domination that could not be adequately explained within the terms of traditional Marxist sociology. For Adorno and Horkheimer,
state intervention in the economy had effectively abolished the tension in capitalism between the "
relations of production" and "material
productive forces of society"—a tension that, according to traditional
Marxist theory, constituted the primary contradiction within capitalism. The previously "free" market (as an "unconscious" mechanism for the distribution of goods) and "irrevocable"
private property of Marx's epoch have gradually been replaced by the more central role of management hierarchies at the firm level and macroeconomic interventions at the state level in contemporary Western societies. The dialectic through which Marx predicted the emancipation of modern society was suppressed, effectively subjugated to a positivist rationality of domination. Philosopher and critical theorist
Nikolas Kompridis writes: Kompridis argues that this "sceptical cul-de-sac" was arrived at with "a lot of help from the once unspeakable and unprecedented barbarity of European fascism" and could not be gotten out of without "some well-marked [exit or] , showing the way out of the ever-recurring nightmare in which Enlightenment hopes and Holocaust horrors are fatally entangled." However, , according to Kompridis, this would not come until later—purportedly in the form of Jürgen Habermas's work on the intersubjective bases of
communicative rationality. Lasch believed the "later Frankfurt School" tended to ground political criticisms too much on psychiatric diagnoses like the
authoritarian personality: "This procedure excused them from the difficult work of judgment and argumentation. Instead of arguing with opponents, they simply dismissed them on psychiatric grounds."
Art and music criticism Walter Benjamin's essay "
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" is a canonical text in art history and film studies. Benjamin is optimistic about the potential of commodified works of art to introduce radical political views to the proletariat. In contrast, Adorno and Horkheimer saw the rise of the
culture industry as promoting homogeneity of thought and entrenching existing authorities. This view of
modern art as producing truth only through the negation of traditional aesthetic form and norms of beauty, because they have become ideological, is characteristic of Adorno and the Frankfurt School generally. In particular, Adorno criticized
jazz and
popular music, viewing them as part of the culture industry that contributes to the present sustainability of capitalism by rendering it "aesthetically pleasing" and "agreeable".
Martin Jay has called the attack on jazz the least successful aspect of Adorno's work in America. ==Praxis==