Immanent Critiques: The Frankfurt School under Pressure

Martin Jay reflects on the legacy of The Dialectical Imagination, highlighting its anti-systematic impulse and sensitivity to changing historical circumstances. He critiques its ideas such as pathologizing political deviance, undefended theological premises, and ambivalence in analyses of anti-Semitism and Zionism. However, the essays also acknowledge its potent arguments, such as its analysis of racket society, Adorno's dialectical reading of aesthetic sublimation, and Benjamin's focus on the corpse for political theory. Jay argues that the Frankfurt School is a still evolving theoretical tradition that offers resources for understanding and practical betterment of our increasingly troubled world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 17 October 2023
Publisher: Verso Books

Fifty years after the publication of Martin Jay's groundbreaking history of the Frankfurt School, The Dialectical Imagination, the author reflects on the legacy of this influential intellectual movement. Rather than treating it with reverence as a fortress to be defended, Jay takes a more critical approach, emphasizing its anti-systematic impulse and sensitivity to changing historical circumstances. Honoring the Frankfurt School's practice of immanent critique, Jay challenges several of its ideas by examining their contradictory impulses. These include the pathologization of political deviance through stigmatizing authoritarian personalities, the undefended theological premises of Walter Benjamin's work, and the ambivalence of its members' analyses of anti-Semitism and Zionism.

In addition to these critical examinations, Jay raises additional questions about other time-honored Marxist themes such as the meaning of alienation, the alleged damages of abstraction, and the advocacy of a politics based on a singular notion of truth. However, rather than allowing these questions to undermine the Frankfurt School's legacy entirely, the essays also acknowledge a number of its still potent arguments. They explore its neglected, but now timely analysis of racket society, Adorno's dialectical reading of aesthetic sublimation, and the unexpected implications of Benjamin's focus on the corpse for political theory.

Jay demonstrates that the Frankfurt School is a still evolving theoretical tradition that offers valuable resources for understanding and potentially improving our increasingly troubled world. Through his insightful analysis, Jay encourages readers to engage with the Frankfurt School's ideas and to consider their relevance in contemporary society.

Weight: 274g
Dimension: 151 x 233 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781804292525