PHL * K101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Frankfurt School, Social Forces
Document Summary
Immediate aim of critical theory is reflexive; goal is to be free of the illusions and binding hold of ideology and other social forces on the individual. Ex: marx wants to try and show how institutions are manipulated to benefit some at the expense of others. As long as we were ignorant of the initial conditions of the institutions, then. Beliefs and desires of critical theory are latent desires, where beliefs and desires of it works as it is meant to be. We have no access to latent desires, which is where issues crop up, but removing the premise of ignorance allows latent desires to be controlled (emancipation) which is the goal of critical social theory. Critical social theorist is the psycho-therapist of society. For critical theory, a functional account is not the end of an investigation, it gets used to understand data, it is not the end, the unmasking of the product is the end.
