ABSTRACT

The portentous terms and phrases associated with the first decades of the Frankfurt School – exile, the dominance of capitalism, fascism – seem as salient today as they were in the early twentieth century. The Routledge Companion to the Frankfurt School addresses the many early concerns of critical theory and brings those concerns into direct engagement with our shared world today. In this volume, a distinguished group of international scholars from a variety of disciplines revisits the philosophical and political contributions of Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth, and others. 

Throughout, the Companion’s focus is on the major ideas that have made the Frankfurt School such a consequential and enduring movement. It offers a crucial resource for those who are trying to make sense of the global and cultural crisis that has now seized our contemporary world.

part I|1 pages

Basic Concepts

chapter 1|16 pages

The Idea of Instrumental Reason

chapter 4|17 pages

The Philosophy of History 1

chapter 5|17 pages

Discourse Ethics

chapter 7|12 pages

History as Critique

Walter Benjamin

chapter 8|14 pages

Topographies of Culture

Siegfried Kracauer

part II|1 pages

Historical Themes

part III|1 pages

Affinities and Contestations

part IV|1 pages

Specifications

part V|1 pages

Prospects

chapter 32|14 pages

Idealism, Realism, and Critical Theory

chapter 34|14 pages

Critical Theory and the Law

chapter 36|14 pages

Critical Theory and Religion

chapter 37|14 pages

Critical Theory and Feminism

chapter 39|9 pages

Critique and Communication: Philosophy’s Missions 1

A conversation with Jürgen Habermas