Social Philosophy

Critical Theory: Selected Essays

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Max Horkheimer

1968

Critical Theory: Selected Essays collects the theoretical essays in which Horkheimer first articulated and refined the programme of the Frankfurt School's critical social theory during the 1930s. The centrepiece is "Traditional and Critical Theory" (1937), which draws the foundational distinction between theory conceived as a disinterested description of given facts (traditional theory) and theory conceived as a reflexive, emancipatory practice oriented toward the possibility of a better social order (critical theory). Other essays develop Horkheimer's materialist account of truth, his critique of positivism's claim to value-neutrality, and his analysis of the relationship between philosophy, science, and politics. Taken together, these essays define what it means for thinking to be both rigorous and engaged — to refuse the false choice between academic detachment and political dogmatism.