Critical Theory

Critical Theory, associated with the Frankfurt School founded by Horkheimer and Adorno, combines social philosophy, psychoanalysis, and Marxist critique to analyse how culture, reason, and ideology serve to reproduce domination. From the Dialectic of Enlightenment's pessimistic account of modernity to Habermas's more optimistic theory of communicative action, it asks how thinking can serve emancipation rather than rationalise power.