Origin and Significance of the Frankfurt School
Subtitle: A Marxist Perspective
By: Phil Slater.
Series: International Library of Sociology
Publisher: Routledge and Kegan Paul
Published: 1980
Place of publication: London, England
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 185
ISBN-13: 9780710004901
Subjects: Frankfurt school of sociology
Other titles: Origem e significado da Escola de Frankfurt
Description: The term 'Frankfurt School' is used widely, but sometimes loosely, to describe both a group of intellectuals and a specific social theory. Focusing on the formative and most radical years of the Frankfurt School, during the 1930s, this study concentrates on the Frankfurt School's most original contributions made to the work on a 'critical theory of society' by the philosophers Max Horkheimer and Herbert Marcuse, the psychologist Erich Fromm, and the aesthetician Theodor W. Adorno.

Phil Slater traces the extent, and ultimate limits, of the Frankfurt School's professed relation to the Marxian critique of political economy. In considering the extent of the relation to revolutionary praxis, he discusses the socio-economic and political history of Weimar Germany in its descent into fascism, and considers the work of such people as Karl Korsch, Wilhelm Reich, Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht, which directs a great deal of critical light on the Frankfurt School.

While pinpointing the ultimate limitations of the Frankfurt School's frame of reference, Phil Slater also looks at the role their work played (largely against their wishes) in the emergence of the student anti-authoritarian movement in the 1960s. He shows that, in particular, the analysis of psychic and cultural manipulation was central to the young rebels' theoretical armour, but that even here, the lack of economic class analysis seriously restricts the critical edge of the Frankfurt School's theory. His conclusion is that the only way forward is to rescue the most radical roots of the Frankfurt School's work, and to recast these in the context of a practical theory of economic and political emancipation.

(Source: [Routledge](https://www.routledge.com/Origin-and-Significance-of-the-Frankfurt-School-RLE-Social-Theory-A-Marxist/Slater/p/book/9781138977778))
Notes: Originally published: 1977.
Table of contents: title: A note on translation
pagenum: x; title: Acknowledgments
pagenum: xi; title: Introduction
pagenum: xiii; label: 1
title: The historical background of the Frankfurt School
pagenum: 1; title: Section One: the pre-Horkheimer tradition of the Institute
pagenum: 1; label: 1
title: The founding of the Institute
pagenum: 1; label: 2
title: Grünberg’s directorship
pagenum: 2; label: 3
title: The Institute’s work in the 1920s
pagenum: 4; label: 4
title: The ‘Grünberg Archive’
pagenum: 6; label: 5
title: Horkheimer’s appointment as Director of the Institute
pagenum: 9; label: 6
title: The Institute’s work under Horkheimer
pagenum: 13; title: Section Two: the Weimar Republic and the rise of fascism
pagenum: 15; label: 1
title: Monopoly capitalism
pagenum: 16; label: 2
title: The Weimar Republic and the German working class
pagenum: 17; label: 3
title: Fascism and capitalism
pagenum: 19; label: 4
title: The Third Reich and the German working class
pagenum: 21; label: 5
title: The problem of manipulation
pagenum: 22; label: 2
title: ‘Critical theory of society’: the historical materialist critique of ideology
pagenum: 26; label: 1
title: The ‘manifesto’ of 1937
pagenum: 27; label: 2
title: The pre-‘manifesto’ formulation of ‘critical theory of society’
pagenum: 30; label: 3
title: Hegel’s dialectics: ‘critical theory’ in philosophy
pagenum: 31; label: 4
title: Hegel’s idealism: ‘traditional theory’ in philosophy
pagenum: 33; label: 5
title: The Marxian critique of political economy
pagenum: 34; label: 6
title: Dialectical versus undialectical thought
pagenum: 36; label: 7
title: The historical problematicity of the sublation of philosophy
pagenum: 39; label: 8
title: The historical materialist truth is the whole
pagenum: 40; label: 9
title: Ideology-critique and the Marxian critique of society
pagenum: 42; label: 10
title: The problem of contemporary metaphysics
pagenum: 48; label: 11
title: The critique of logical positivism
pagenum: 50; label: 12
title: The dialectical critique of liberalism in the era of monopoly capitalism
pagenum: 52; label: 3
title: The historical materialist theory-praxis nexus
pagenum: 54; label: 1
title: Marx, Lenin and the Frankfurt School on class-; label: consciousness and the party
title: 56; label: 2
title: Socialist construction and the dictatorship of the proletariat
pagenum: 58; label: 3
title: The Frankfurt School and Stalinism
pagenum: 59; label: 4
title: The break in the theory-praxis nexus
pagenum: 62; label: 5
title: The Frankfurt School and Rosa Luxemburg
pagenum: 64; label: 6
title: The Frankfurt School and the KPD
pagenum: 66; label: 7
title: The Frankfurt School and Trotsky
pagenum: 68; label: 8
title: The Frankfurt School and Brandlerism
pagenum: 70; label: 9
title: The Frankfurt School and ‘Council Communism’
pagenum: 72; label: 10
title: The Frankfurt School and reformism
pagenum: 75; label: 11
title: The Frankfurt School and left-wing Social Democracy
pagenum: 77; label: 12
title: The practical-theoretical metacritique of the Frankfurt School
pagenum: 81; label: 13
title: Alfred Sohn-Rethel
pagenum: 83; label: 14
title: The degeneration of ‘critical theory of society’ in Horkheimer
pagenum: 87; label: 15
title: The radicalisation of ‘critical theory of society’ in Marcuse
pagenum: 89; label: 16
title: ‘Critical theory of society’ and the analysis of manipulation
pagenum: 92; label: 4
title: Historical materialist psychology: the psychic dimension of manipulation and revolt
pagenum: 94; label: 1
title: Fromm and the significance of depth-psychology
pagenum: 95; label: 2
title: Freud versus Jung
pagenum: 97; label: 3
title: Strengths and weaknesses of Freud’s depth-psychology
pagenum: 98; label: 4
title: The pitfall of the death-drive theory
pagenum: 100; label: 5
title: The super-ego and psychic manipulation
pagenum: 102; label: 6
title: The Frankfurt School and Wilhelm Reich
pagenum: 104; label: 7
title: The Institute’s analysis of authority
pagenum: 105; label: 8
title: The Institute’s analysis of the family and its dialectics
pagenum: 107; label: 9
title: The refutation of the ‘death-drive’
pagenum: 108; label: 10
title: Contemplative psychology and the loss of praxis
pagenum: 112; label: 11
title: The absolutisation of psychology
pagenum: 114; label: 12
title: The role of psychology in Marcuse’s radicalised ‘critical theory of society’
pagenum: 115; label: 13
title: Manipulation: the transition from psychology to ‘culture industry’
pagenum: 117; label: 5
title: Historical materialist aesthetics: art as ‘affirmation’, ‘culture industry’, and ‘negation’
pagenum: 119; label: 1
title: Art as affirmation
pagenum: 120; label: 2
title: Art as manipulation: ‘culture industry’
pagenum: 122; label: 3
title: Lenin and Trotsky on revolutionary art
pagenum: 125; label: 4
title: Georg Lukács and socialist realism
pagenum: 127; label: 5
title: Brecht’s theatre
pagenum: 130; label: 6
title: Art as negation
pagenum: 133; label: 7
title: Walter Benjamin
pagenum: 136; label: 8
title: Brecht’s work in radio
pagenum: 138; label: 9
title: Brecht’s work in agitation songs
pagenum: 140; label: 10
title: Aesthetic elitism and the loss of class praxis
pagenum: 142; label: 11
title: Brecht’s attack on the Frankfurt School ‘Tuis’
pagenum: 144; label: 12
title: The role of aesthetics in Marcuse’s radicalised ‘critical theory of society’
pagenum: 145; title: Notes
pagenum: 149; title: Bibliography
pagenum: 175; title: Index
pagenum: 183