ABSTRACT
Comparisons between early critical theory and green politics can be drawn because both of them, in different ways, amount to a critique of various Enlightenment themes. They both bemoan the dark side of scientism, industrialism and modernity, and citical theorists, like ecocentrics, seek the emancipation not just of human beings but of nature as a whole. The stress here is on early critical theory, and a fuller picture of the relationship between critical theory and green politics would involve a detailed examination of the work of Jurgen Habermas. I only touch briefly on Habermas in this chapter, and these present considerations are excellently complemented by Robyn Eckersley’s (1990) paper on Habermas and green theory.
