Abstract
Does theorising always presuppose a programme of justification? Does the Critical Theory of Adorno and Horkheimer do so? Do they claim it does? The answer should be a resounding ‘no’ to all three questions. In regard to the second and third question, I have sketched an argument to that effect in an earlier paper in this journal. In this paper, I offer a rejoinder to the critical reply offered by Stefan Müller-Doohm und Roman Yos on behalf of the Habermasian mainstream in Frankfurt School Critical Theory. This rejoinder depends on giving a negative answer also to the first question. In rejecting the Habermasian idea of a programme of justification, I stand accused of dogmatism and, consequently, decisionism (for how else than by an arbitrary decision can one choose among dogmas?). I show that this accusation itself betrays a certain dogmatism – insofar as it accepts that such a programme of justification is undeniably possible and required, without consideration of evidence or arguments to the contrary. Self-reflective and critical theorising about society can, indeed must, take other forms.
Literatur
Adorno, T. W. (1997a), Minima Moralia [1951] (= Gesammelte Schriften 4), Frankfurt am Main.Search in Google Scholar
Adorno, T. W. (1997b), Negative Dialektik [1966] (= Gesammelte Schriften 6), Frankfurt am Main [ND].Search in Google Scholar
Freyenhagen, F. (2011), Empty, Useless, and Dangerous? Recent Kantian Replies to the Empty Formalism Objection, in: Bulletin of the Hegel Society 63, 95–118.10.1017/S0263523200000215Search in Google Scholar
Freyenhagen, F. (2013a), Adorno’s Practical Philosophy: Living Less Wrongly, Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9781139567763Search in Google Scholar
Freyenhagen, F. (2013b), Ethical (Self-)Critique, in: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 113.3, 253–268.10.1111/j.1467-9264.2013.00354.xSearch in Google Scholar
Freyenhagen, F. (2015), Honneth on Social Pathology: A Critique, in: Critical Horizons 16.2, 131–152.10.1179/1440991715Z.00000000044Search in Google Scholar
Freyenhagen, F. (2017), Was ist orthodoxe Kritische Theorie?, in: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 65.3, 456–469, auch in: Danneman, R., Pickford, H., u. Schiller, H.-E. (Hg.) (2018), Der aufrechte Gang im windschiefen Kapitalismus. Modelle kritischen Denkens, Wiesbaden, 141–152.Search in Google Scholar
Freyenhagen, F. (2018), Critical Theory: Self-Reflexive Theorizing and Struggles for Emancipation, in: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, URL: http://politics.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-195(12.1.2019)10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.195Search in Google Scholar
Freyenhagen, F. (2019) (i. E.), Adorno (and Horkheimer) on Antisemitism, in: Gordon, P., Hammer, E., u. Pensky, M. A., A Companion to Adorno, Oxford.10.1002/9781119146940.ch7Search in Google Scholar
Freyenhagen, F. (o. J.), Objective reason and irrational society: the „linguistic turn“ in Horkheimer and Adorno, unveröff. Ms.Search in Google Scholar
Honneth, A. (2017), Is there an emancipatory interest? An attempt to answer critical theory’s most fundamental question, in: European Journal of Philosophy 25, 908–920, URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ejop.12321 (12.1.2019).10.1111/ejop.12321Search in Google Scholar
Horkheimer, M. (1988a), Traditionelle und kritische Theorie [1937], in: Gesammelte Schriften 4, Frankfurt am Main, 162–216 [TKT].Search in Google Scholar
Horkheimer, M. (1988b), Nachtrag zu Traditionelle und kritische Theorie [1937], in: Gesammelte Schriften 4, Frankfurt am Main, 217–225 [Ntg].Search in Google Scholar
Horkheimer, M., u. Adorno, T. W. (1997), Dialektik der Aufklärung. Philosophische Fragmente [1944] (= Adorno, T. W., Gesammelte Schriften 3), Frankfurt am Main [DdA].Search in Google Scholar
Khurana, T. (2013), Impulse und Reflexion. Aporien der Moralphilosophie und die Moral der Aporien nach Adorno, in: Zeitschrift für kritische Theorie 19.36–37, 60–82.Search in Google Scholar
Martin, W. (2009), Ought but Cannot, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 109, 103–128.10.1111/j.1467-9264.2009.00260.xSearch in Google Scholar
Müller-Doohm, S., u. Yos, R. (2018), Fatale Orthodoxie. Kritische Theorie auf der schiefen Bahn des Dezionismus. Eine Replik auf Fabian Freyenhagen, in: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 66.6, 788–801 [Rpl].10.1515/dzph-2018-0056Search in Google Scholar
Schaub, J. (2015), Misdevelopments, Pathologies, and Normative Revolutions: Normative Reconstruction as Method of Critical Theory, in: Critical Horizons 16.2, 107–130.10.1179/1440991715Z.00000000043Search in Google Scholar
Schiller, H.-E. (2018), Antagonismus. 12 Thesen zu Vernunft und Unvernunft in gesellschaftskritischer Perspektive, in: Danneman, R., Pickford, H., u. Schiller, H.-E. (Hg.), Der aufrechte Gang im windschiefen Kapitalismus. Modelle kritischen Denkens, Wiesbaden, 123–139.10.1007/978-3-658-20520-1_5Search in Google Scholar
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
