Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity

284 Pages·1989·22.6 MB·English

by  Douglas M. Kellner

Critical Theory, Marxism and Modernity
For jive terrific friends: Bob Antonio,
Steve Best, Steve Bronner, Judy Burton
and Gloria Gannaway
Critical Theory, Marxism
and Modernity
DOUGLAS KELLNER
Polity Press
Copyright © Douglas Kellner 1989
First published 1989 by Polity Press
in association with Basil Blackwell.
Editorial Office:
Polity Press, Dales Brewery, Gwydir Street,
Cambridge CB1 2LJ, UK
Basil Blackwell Ltd
108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Kellner, Douglas, 1943-
Critical theory, Marxism and modernity.
1. Sociology. Critical theory
I. Title
301 '.01
ISB~ 0-7456-0439-0
Typeset in 10 on 12pt Baskerville
by Downdell Ltd, Oxford
Printed in Great Britain by
T. J. Press Ltd, Padstow
Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments vn
Bibliographical Abbreviations 1x
1 THEORY, POLITICS AND HISTORY 1
1.1 Critical Theory and Modernity 3
1.2 Critical Theory and the Crisis of Marxism 9
1.3 The Institute for Social Research 13
2 FROM SUPRADISCIPLINARY MATERIALISM
TO CRITICAL THEORY: THE 1930s PROGRAM 22
2.1 Supradisciplinary Materialism 22
2.2 Toward a Materialist Social Psychology 35
2.3 Traditional and Critical Theory 43
3 ECONOMY, STATE, SOCIETY: NEW THEORIES
OF CAPITALISM AND FASCISM 51
3. 1 Political Sociology and Political Economy 52
3.2 From Market to Monopoly/State Capitalism 55
3.3 Fascism 66
3.4 Fragments of a Theory of Society 76
4 FROM DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT TO
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY:
CRITICAL THEORY IN THE 1940s 83
4.1 Science, Reason and Dialectic of Enlightenment 85
4. 2 Eclipse of Reason 101
4.3 Critical Theory, the Proletariat and Politics 104
4.4 Studies in Prejudice and the Return to Germany 114
VI CONTENTS
5 FROM 'AUTHENTIC ART' TO THE
CULTURE INDUSTRIES 121
5.1 Dialectics of Culture 122
5.2 Critical Theory and the Culture Industry 130
5.3 New Critical Perspectives on Mass Communications
and Culture 140
6 FROM THE CONSUMER SOCIETY TO
POSTMODERNISM 146
6.1 Critical Theory and the Consumer Society 147
6.2 New Critical Perspectives on Commodities, Needs
and Consumption 158
6.3 Critical Theory, Modernity and Postmodernity 167
7 TECHNO-CAPITALISM 176
7.1 Technology, Capitalism and Domination 178
7. 2 The Capitalist State 191
7.3 Toward a New Crisis Theory: Habermas and Offe 196
8 THEORY AND PRACTICE: THE POLITICS
OF CRITICAL THEORY 204
8.1 Critical Theory and Radical Politics 205
8.2 Techno-Capitalism, Crisis and Social Transformation 211
8.3 New Social Movements and Socialist Politics 218
8.4 For Supradisciplinary Radical Social Theory with
a Practical Intent 230
Notes 234
Index 268
Preface and Acknowledgments
During the 1960s, many among my generation of New Left radicals in the
United States and Europe turned for theoretical and political guidance to·
the works of Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, T. W. Adorno, Erich
Fromm, Leo Lowenthal, Frederick Pollock, Jiirgen Habermas and their
colleagues. Their neo-Marxist 'Critical Theory' helped illuminate those
oppressive social conditions and problems which we were experiencing,
and provided compelling reasons for our rejection of capitalist society and
our demands for radical social change. Consequently, Critical Theory
helped radicalize a generation of intellectuals and activists.
During the 1970s, the major works of the so-called Frankfurt School were
translated, and Critical Theory has become part of the theoretical and
political debates of the past two decades. In this book, I shall attempt to
document the relevance of Critical Theory to some of the central issues of
radical social theory and politics from the 1930s to the present, and will
indicate why I believe that a reconstructed Critical Theory can continue to
be significant in the future.
I began writing this book in the early 1980s, during a period of conserva
tive reaction in the United States and elsewhere. Intense study of Critical
Theory helped preserve a stance of radical opposition during this era, and
provided weapons for a critique of the conservative hegemony. As we move
into the 1990s and toward a new century, Critical Theory might help to
produce theoretical and political perspectives which could be part of a Left
Turn that could reanimate the political hopes of the 1960s, while helping to
overcome and reverse the losses and regression of the 1980s. Such a hope
motivated this undertaking.
Over the years, my knowledge of Critical Theory has benefited from
conversations with and the writings of Herbert Marcuse, J iirgen Habermas,
Leo Lowenthal, Albrecht Wellmer, MartinJay, Stanley Aronowitz, Fredric
Jameson, Thomas McCarthy, Helmut Dubiel, Alfons Sollner, Wolfgang
Vlll PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Bonss, Axel Honneth, Hauke Brunkhorst, Michael Ryan, Osvaldo
Guariglia and many other individuals from all over the world whom I have
met or with whom I have corresponded.
Many people have read and commented on chapters of this book over the
years. They include Kevin Anderson, Mark Ritter, Rick Roderick, Clay
Steinman and Anthony Giddens, who made some extremely useful
proposals which have been incorporated in the final version. But I would
like to dedicate the book to five terrific friends who read and commented on
every chapter, and discussed every aspect of the book with me: Bob
Antonio, Steve Best, Steve Bronner, Judy Burton, and Gloria Gannaway.
It has certainly benefited from their criticisms and our discussions, and I
am extremely grateful to them for friendship and support during a difficult
political epoch.
Bibliographical Abbreviations
A Frederick Pollock, The Economic and Social Consequences of Automation
(Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1957)
AP T. W. Adorno et al., The Authoritarian Personality (New York:
Norton, 1950)
B Franz Neumann, Behemoth (New York: Oxford University Press,
1944)
CoP Erich Fromm, The Crisis of Psychoanalysis (New York: Fawcett,
1970)
CT Max Horkheimer, Critical Theory (New York: Seabury, 1972)
D&D Max Horkheimer, Dawn and Decline. Notes 1926-1931 and 1950-1969
(New York: Seabury, 1978)
DoE Max Horkheimer and T. W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment
(New York: Herder and Herder, 1972)
EoR Max Horkheimer, Eclipse of Reason (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1947; republished Seabury, 1974)
FS Rolf Wiggershaus, Die Frankfurter Schute (Munich: Hanser, 1986)
FSR Andrew Arato and Eike Gebhardt, eds, The Frankfurt School Reader
(New York: Continuum, 1982)
LC Jiirgen Habermas, Legitimation Crisis (Boston: Beacon Press, 1975)
LPCS Leo Lowenthal, Literature, Popular Culture, and Society (Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1961)
MM T. W. Adorno, Minima Moralia (London: New Left Books, 1974)
N Herbert Marcuse, Negations (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968)
ODM Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man (Boston: Beacon Press,
1964)
p T. W. Adorno, Prisms (London: Neville Spearman, 1967)
ss
Erich Fromm, The Sane Society (New York: Holt Rinehart Winston,
1955)