A Conversation About Max Horkheimer's "Traditional and Critical Theory"

Kelly Fitzsimmons Burton and Blake Faulkner discuss Frankfurt School original Max Horkheimer's essay "Traditional and Critical Theory" in an attempt to understand what Critical Theory is and how the term is being used today in broader social movements. We ask: What is theory? What is Critical Theory? How is Critical Theory related to philosophy, science, and other thinkers (such as Hegel, Marx, and Kant)?

[@thallesvinicius2729]

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13:28
17:00

[@jamieammons]

That explanation of the shift since Nietzsche from thinking about being to thinking about living was very helpful.

[@kellyfitzsimmonsburton]

Yeah, I thought that was a new insight. I have been thinking about it more since we recorded.

[@jamieammons]

@@kellyfitzsimmonsburton
I'm glad I'm not the only one. It was like a light went on when I heard it.

[@blakefaulkner4366]

Thanks Jamie. Yes, I think that the more academics have noticed how easily and quickly society changes the more they have shifted away from universal and fixed terms like being, knowledge, nature, and even identity or the self. "Process philosophy" is a typical extension of this kind of thinking, and they are often fans of Nietzsche among others (Henri Bergson, Alfred North Whitehead, Brian Massumi, and even some of the pragmatists like William James and Charles Peirce). They rarely espouse Nietzsche's political ideas (hierarchy, anti-socialist, exploitation is a given, etc), but they are fans of his critiques of fixity and his praise of transformation.

[@lloyd2624]

Thanks, I am a Masters student studying critical theory for the first time and this has been so helpful

[@kellyfitzsimmonsburton]

I am glad you enjoyed it!

[@blakefaulkner4366]

You're welcome Tom. This is certainly not representative of all things that go by "critical theory." But it's definitely an important voice in that wheelhouse.

[@Americansikkunt]

I don’t understand why the confusion about “Critical Theory”.
Perhaps it is because the name implies “objective analysis”....But in reality, it is non-objective and Marxist-biased.
They claim “the majority inherently oppress the minorities”, yet non-white nation’s complain of “white beauty standards” and “colonization”....In practice, their theory proves false many times.
Also, try telling a “woke” person who claims “white People opprss blacks in America”, than Africans oppress whites in whichever nation....
They flip! They can’t comprehend that someone OTHER than whites can oppress, let alone other blacks.

[@blakefaulkner4366]

@@Americansikkunt If only their were more "confusion" about critical theory; then we might be more careful in how we use the term in public discourse. The problem is that there is too much certainty about it because people are ignorant (sometimes willfully) of the varieties of thinkers that do critique. And yes, this video is discussing a text coming out of the Marxist critical theory tradition, but we also talk about in the video repeatedly how there is a broader notion of critical theory that isn't Marxist, and we name several thinkers like that: Fukuyama, Nietzsche, Hegel, Kant, etc. These are "critical theorists" but they are definitely not Marxists, nor are most of their intellectual descendants. In fact, they're actively hostile towards Marxism, Socialism, Communism, etc., but you'll never hear that in public discourse right now.

[@marekprosser9369]

You just saved my studies, thank you! I have to have a presentation in about 4 hours on the Traditional and critical theory, and I do not understand a word of it from the original, you made my day, thank you!

[@kellyfitzsimmonsburton]

So glad that we can be helpful! I wish you the best.