Understanding Critical Theory: Origins, Characteristics, and Notable Figures

📚 The critical theory emerged as a response to positivism and focuses on the negative aspects of contemporary society.

👥 It explores the social relationships between individuals and their environment.

👨‍🏫 Key representatives of critical theory include Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Max Horkheimer, Jürgen Habermas, and Eric Fromm.

📚 The Frankfurt School, led by Max Horkheimer, shifted towards critical theory, challenging traditional theoretical models.

💡 The period between the two World Wars was characterized by economic crisis, the rise of monopolistic corporations, and the threat of communism and National Socialism.

🌍 The Institute for Social Research was closed by the Nazis in 1933, and its members relocated to Geneva and then New York, receiving support from Columbia University.

📚 The Frankfurt School formed after World War II and developed critical theory as a tool for societal transformation.

🔍 Critical theory analyzes late capitalism, focusing on commodification, objectification, and critique of mass culture.

💡 Marxism and psychoanalysis intersect in the Frankfurt School's quest to understand social relations.

🔑 The critical theory combines psychoanalysis and Marxist concepts.

🌍 The critical theory emphasizes the transformative role of science in society.

🎭 The Frankfurt School explores the impact of mass culture on art and society.

📚 The video discusses the origins and characteristics of Critical Theory.

👥 Max Horkheimer is considered the initiator and main promoter of Critical Theory.

📚 Theodor Adorno was another significant representative of the Frankfurt School and made important contributions to Critical Theory.

📚 The Theory of Critique is a concept that originated in Germany in the 1970s and has been associated with the Frankfurt School.

👥 Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, and Eric Fromm are notable representatives of the Theory of Critique.

💡 Key works in the Theory of Critique include 'The Origin of German Baroque Drama,' 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,' and 'One-Dimensional Man.'

📚 The video discusses the concept of Critical Theory, its historical origins, and its key characteristics.

🔍 Jürgen Habermas, a philosopher and sociologist, is recognized as the leading figure of the second generation of the Frankfurt School.

💡 Habermas' notable works include 'Knowledge and Human Interests', 'The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity', and 'Facticity and Validity'.