Frankfurt School

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (Frankfurter Schule) refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main. The school initially consisted of dissident Marxists who believed that some of Marx's followers had come to parrot a narrow selection of Marx's ideas, usually in defense of orthodox Communist parties. Although sometimes only loosely affiliated, Frankfurt School theorists spoke with a common paradigm in mind, thus sharing the same assumptions and being preoccupied with similar questions. In order to fill in the perceived omissions of traditional Marxism, they sought to draw answers from other schools of thought, hence using the insights of antipositivist sociology, psychoanalysis, existential philosophy, and other disciplines.[1] The school's main figures sought to learn from and synthesize the works of such varied thinkers as Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, Weber and Lukács. Meanwhile, many of these theorists experienced that traditional Marxist theory could not adequately explain the turbulent and unexpected development of capitalist societies in the twentieth century. Critical of both capitalism and Soviet socialism, their writings pointed to the possibility of an alternative path to social development. (Wikipedia) Frankfurt School Institute for Social Research List of critical theorists Jürgen Habermas Nikolas Kompridis Max Horkheimer Theodor W. Adorno Herbert Marcuse Friedrich Pollock Erich Fromm Otto Kirchheimer Leo Löwenthal Franz Leopold Neumann Claus Offe Axel Honneth Oskar Negt Alfred Schmidt (philosopher) Albrecht Wellmer Siegfried Kracauer Alfred Sohn-Rethel Walter Benjamin State monopoly capitalism Comparative history Rationalization (sociology) Bureaucracy Logical positivism Phenomenology (philosophy) Franz Kafka Marcel Proust Arnold Schoenberg Culture industry Bourgeoisie Historical materialism Rate of exploitation Democratic socialism Søren Kierkegaard Friedrich Nietzsche Dialectic of Enlightenment Nazism State capitalism The Authoritarian Personality Karl Popper Reason and Revolution The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Eclipse of Reason (Horkheimer) Minima Moralia Eros and Civilization One-Dimensional Man Negative Dialectics The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere The Theory of Communicative Action Critical theory Dialectic Praxis (process) Freudo-Marxism Positivism dispute Popular culture studies Advanced capitalism Privatism Communicative rationality Legitimation crisis Weimar Republic György Lukács Karl Korsch Karl August Wittfogel History and Class Consciousness Communist party German Revolution of 1918–1919 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844 Social science Max Weber Neo-Kantianism Immanuel Kant Scientific socialism Marxism–Leninism Das Kapital Social inequality Exploitation Young Hegelians Idea of Progress Geist Communist revolution Irrationality Post-Fordism Commodity fetishism