CONTEMPORARY CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY:

THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL OF SOCIAL CRITICISM
 

 SPRING 2002

 KALAMAZOO COLLEGE

PROFESSOR: Chris Latiolais
Philosophy Department
Kalamazoo College
Humphrey House #202
Telephone # 337-7076
Offices Hours:
1) Mon. 11:30 - 1:30.
2) Tues. 11:30- 12:30.
3)  By Appointment.

COURSE GOALS:
 

        This course in an introduction to contemporary research within the European-Continental tradition of thought known as the “Frankfurt School of Social Criticism” or, more generally, “Critical Social Theory.”  We will examine recent proposed models of how critical social inquiry should be understood.  The abiding aim of this tradition is to develop a philosophical model of society that maintains, for social inquiry, a conceptual link between knowledge about and practical engagement with social reality.  We begin by studying Habermas’s first formulation of this type of inquiry in Knowledge and Human Interest and then proceed to his most recent work, The Theory of Communicative Action.  We will then turn to Axel Honneth’s alternative, Neo-Hegelian model of social development, which proposes the ideal of “undamaged identities,” not Habermas’s ideal of “undistorted communication,” as the primary aim of a rational society.  Throughout the course, examples from U.S. social movements -- the ecology, feminist and multicultural movements -- will be used to assess the relative strengths of these different models to address contemporary social crises.

EVALUATION:
 
 
 

TYPE OF EVALUATION	FREQUENCY	TOTAL
Class Participation: Seminar presentations, classroom discussion and email correspondence		10%
Midterm Examinations	2 @ 20% =	40%
Quizzes	5 @ 5% =	25%
Final Paper (10-15 pages)	1 @ 25% =	25%

 

POLICIES:
 

     Open, respectful and critical discussion is crucial to the success of this seminar.  Quizzes offer students, teacher, and teaching assistant alike the opportunity to identify and to clarify central terms/concepts.     The midterm examinations test comprehension of key philosophical issues and arguments, and the final paper offers students the opportunity to respond in depth to a single topic.  The final paper is due on the day scheduled for the final examination.  3 unexcused absences will result in a full grade reduction.

1. Habermas, Juergen: The Theory of Communicative Action: Volume 1: Reason and the Rationalization of Society, trans. Thomas McCarthy (Beacon Press, Boston, 1984).

2. White, Stephen K, The Recent Work of Juergen Habermas: Reason, Justice and Modernity (Cambridge University Press, New York 1988).

3. McCarthy, Thomas, The Critical Theory of Juergen Habermas (The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 1981).

4. Course Packet:

1. From Situating The Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics (Routledge, New York 1992):

(1) “Models of Public Space: Hannah Arendt, the Liberal Tradition and Juergen Habermas” Benhabib, Seyla [1992]:

(2) “The Debate over Women and Moral Theory Revisited” in Benhabib, Seyla [1992]:  Situating The Self: Gender, Community and Postmodernism in Contemporary Ethics (Routledge, New York 1992).

2. From Honneth, Axel [1995]: The Fragmented World of the Social: Essays in Social and Political Philosophy (State University of New York Press, Albany, 1995):

(1) “Author’s introduction.”

(2) “Integrity and Disrespect.”

(3) “Decentered Autonomy.”

3. From Honneth, Axel [1995]: The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts (Polity Press, Cambridge 1995), Joel Anderson trans.

(1) “Patterns of Intersubjective Recognition: Love, Rights, and Solidarity.”

(2) “Personal Identity and Disrespect: The Violation of the Body, the Denial of Rights, and the Denigration of Ways of Life.”

INTRODUCTION: THE CRITIQUE OF INSTRUMENTAL RATIONALITY:

TUES:                                                                                                                           Week One

1.  Course Mechanics.
2.  The Idea of a Critical Social Theory.

THUR:

1.  “On Theory and Practice in our Scientific Civilization” (McCarthy, 1-53).

TUES:                                                                                                                                   Week Two

1. “Knowledge and Human Interests” (McCarthy, 53-126)

1.  “Knowledge and Human Interests” (Cont.)

2.  Discussion.

TUES:                                                                                                                                       Week Three

1.  “Empirical Philosophy of History with Practical Intent” (McCarthy, 126-137).
2.  “Understanding and Social Inquiry” (McCarthy, 137-162).
3.  “Language, Hermeneutics, and the Critique of Ideology” (McCarthy, 162-193).

THUR:

1.  “Psychoanalysis and Social Theory” (McCarthy, 193-213).
2.  “On the Scope and Limits of Functionalist Theory” (McCarthy, 213-232).
3.  “Toward a Reconstruction of Historical Materialism” (McCarthy, 232-272).

TUES:                                                                                                                                            Week Four

1.  “Rationality, Social Theory and Political Philosophy” (White, 1-48).
2.  “The Idea of a Universal Pragmatics” (McCarthy, 272-291).

THUR:

1.  “Rationality, Social Theory and Political Philosophy” (White, 1-48) [Cont.]
2.  “The Idea of a Universal Pragmatics” (McCarthy, 272-291) [Cont.]

WEBER’S THEORY OF RATIONALIZATION AND HABERMAS’S THEORY OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION:

TUES:                                                                                                                                                Week Six

1.  Translator's Introduction (Habermas v-xxxix).
2.  “Occidental Rationalism” (Habermas, 143-187).

THUR:

1.  “The Disenchantment of Religious-Metaphysical Worldviews” (Habermas, 187-216).
2.  Discussion.

TUES:  “Social Action, Purposive Activity, and Communication” (Habermas, 272-339).       Week Seven

THUR: Movie: Glengarry Glen Ross.

TUES:                                                                                                                                            Week Eight

1.  “Social Action, Purposive Activity, and Communication” (Cont.).
2.  “Justice and the Foundation of Communicative Ethics” (White, 48-69).

THUR:

1.  “Toward a Minimal Ethics and Orientation for Political Theory” (White, 69-90).
2.  “Communicative Reason, Modernity and Contemporary Capitalism” (White, 90-128).

DISCOURSE ETHICS AND FEMINIST CONCERNS:

TUES:                                                                                                                                                    Week Nine

1. “The Debate over Women and Moral Theory Revisited” (Benhabib).
2.   “Models of Public Space: Hannah Arendt, the Liberal Tradition and Juergen Habermas” Benhabib, Seyla [1992]:
3.  Evening Movie: Oleana.

UNDISTORTED COMMUNICATION AND UNDAMAGED IDENTITIES: TWO COMPETING IDEALS OF CRITICAL THEORY AND THE POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE?

THUR:

1.  “Author’s introduction” (Honneth).
2.  “Integrity and Disrespect” (Honneth).
3.  “Patterns of Intersubjective Recognition: Love, Rights, and Solidarity” (Honneth).

TUES: (Continued):                                                                                                                                    Week Ten

1.  “Author’s introduction” (Honneth).
2.  “Integrity and Disrespect” (Honneth).
3.  “Patterns of Intersubjective Recognition: Love, Rights, and Solidarity” (Honneth).

THUR:

1.  “Personal Identity and Disrespect: The Violation of the Body, the Denial of Rights, and the Denigration of Ways of Life” (Honneth).
2.  “Decentered Autonomy” (Honneth).
3.  Student Evaluations.

FINALS WEEK