This module attempts to trace an intellectual dialogue between two important streams of thought in 20th Century European Philosophy: Critical Theory (esp. the Frankfurt School) and Hermeneutics.
In the first half of this module, we will examine selected essays from some seminal thinkers of the Frankfurt School such as Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse. While situating the Frankfurt School within its intellectual and historical traditions, I would like focus on one of the central contributions of Critical Theorists to contemporary intellectual life – namely, the exploration of the nature, conditions of possibility and limits of reason.
The systematic exposition of the conditionedness of reason undertaken by Critical Theorists has had significant philosophical impact on our understanding of the relationships between rationality, knowledge and truth. If reason is conditioned by extraneous factors and in particular by relations of power among groups in societies – by histories that elevate specific ideologies and sets of justificatory principles above others – then what promise do we have of reason actually yielding truth? What does truth mean in these circumstances? Can we continue to maintain a distinction between reason and ideology?
This analysis leads us to the Hermeneutic Tradition which constitutes the second half of our course. While sharing the insights of Critical Theorists concerning the conditionedness of reason, the Hermeneuticists conceptualise rationality as a form of interpretative praxis. They argue that we employ a sophisticated set of interpretative tools and concepts inherited from previous generations of thinkers to sort through and make sense of the most basic aspects of our lived experience. Interpretation is therefore an invariable feature of any form of human thought and interaction. If this is true, then we are conditioned by the epistemic prejudices our culture and language practices give us. Here we can pose another set of fascinating questions. If we understand by virtue of the concepts and practices that are shaped by culture and language, then what prospects do we have of stepping beyond those limits to reflect upon and critique our own practices? Can we meaningfully speak with someone coming from outside the hermeneutic circle that demarcates the limits of our experience?
The Critical Theorists have often charged Hermeneuticists with operating under an assumption of the impossibility of critiquing our interpretative horizons while the Hermeneuticists argue that Critical Theorists fail to acknowledge the salience of interpretative practices as structural aspects of human thought which are ineradicable. If time permits, we will draw together both sections of the course by examining the work of Jurgen Habermas – who occupies and interesting middle ground between Critical Theory and Hermeneutics.
Both schools of thought are indelibly shaped by their attempts to grapple with and respond to the implications of understanding reason as a practice conditioned by particular histories and forms of life. The set of questions opened by thinking of this idea is the central point around which our discussions will revolve this semester.
Assessment
Tutorials: 20% 1 short essay (approximately 1000 words – 2 pages single-line spacing) : 15% 1 long essay (approximately 2000 words – 4 pages single-line spacing) : 35 % Final Examination: 30%
If you have any questions, you can email me, call me or drop by at my office for a chat. Details: Email: alex@nus.edu.sg Office Telephone number: 6516 6099 Office location: AS3 #05-04 (email me to arrange an appointment before coming.)
References
We will read selections from the following texts. Don't panic – we won't read everything!
Jon Simons (edr.), From Kant to Levi-Strauss: The Background to Contemporary Critical Theory, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2002
Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, New York: Continuum, 1972
Andrew Arato and Eike Gebharbt (edr.), The Essential Frankfurt School Reader, New York: Continuum, 1982
Theodor Adorno, Prisms, Cambridge, Massachusetts, The MIT Press, 1982
Max Horkheimer, ‘Traditional and Critical Theory’ in Max Horkheimer, Critical Theory: Selected Essays, New York: Continuum, 1972
Max Horkheimer, Eclipse of Reason, New York: Continuum, 1974 (selections)
Wilhelm Dilthey, ‘The Understanding of Other Persons and their Expressions of Life’ in Wilhelm Dilthey, Descriptive Psychology and Historical Understanding, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1977.
Wilhelm Dilthey, Selected Writings, H.P. Rickman (edr), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976 (selections)
Hans Georg Gadamer, Reason in the Age of Science, Cambridge: Massachussetts: The MIT Press, 1981 (selections)
Ormiston and Schrift, The Hermeneutic Tradition: from Ast to Riceour, New York: SUNY Press, 1989
