PS398 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Basic Belief, Max Horkheimer, Egalitarianism
Document Summary
Critical theory serves to disrupt and challenge the status quo. Researcher"s proactive values are central to task, purpose, and methods of research. Origins traced to institute of social research at university of frankfurt in 1920s where scholars influenced by marx, kant, hegal, and weber, said injustice and subjugation shape the lived world . Pioneers horkheimer, adorno, and marcuse were jewish and fled to california from germany during nazi regime and were shocked by the contraditions between progressive american rhetoric of egalitarianism and the reality of racial and class discrimination. Basic belief in a constructed lived experience that is mediated by power relations within social and historical contexts and an emphasis on dialectic interaction leading to emancipation from oppression and a more egalitarian and democratic social order. A criticalist is a researcher who uses their work as a form of cultural or social criticism.
