ABSTRACT
Undeniably, there is a big leap between the founding fathers of the Frankfurt School and Ulrich Beck, who might be considered as a third generation (Munich-based) critical theorist. Already, second generation critical theorists like Marcuse and Habermas had criticised the pessimism and inner contradictions of Horkheimer and Adorno’s thinking. Habermas, in particular, introduced radical and important changes into critical theory. Yet from the specific perspective of this study, his writings are less interesting than those of Ulrich Beck. Whilst in Habermas’s work the themes of nature and ecology find only marginal representation (Eckersley 1990, 1992), Beck shares Horkheimer and Adorno’s immediate concern for nature and reconciliation. As I indicated above, he focuses their critical project on ecological issues in the contemporary sense. He performs the transition from early critical theory’s concern for nature to today’s ecological concern, and thus provides an opportunity to explore how far early critical theory’s insights and theses about nature are applicable to the contemporary ecological discourse. And what makes Beck’s work even more interesting from my particular perspective: he considers the abolition of nature as the starting point for his theoretical inquiry.
