Frankfurt School

# Dates and key figures

The *Frankfurt School* (Frankfurter Schule) originated in the Institute for Social Research at the Goethe University of Frankfurt. It was a school of though dedicated to critical thinking. The most notable members of the Frankfurt school were Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Erich Fromm and Herbert Marcuse.

# Core Ideas

The framework of thought of the Frankfurt School departed from but also extended Marxist ideas. Even though they agreed with Marx that the ultimate goal of critical theory is to free man from slavery, their ideas about domination and the struggle against it fundamentally differed from Marx's. They abandoned the analysis of economic conditions and no longer centred their hopes around the working class as the saviour of society. In a way they took a step back from Marx's ideas and turned again to the ideas of Hegel and the young Hegelians that Marx himself had so vigorously criticized. Instead of emphasizing economic conditions they focused on culture and ideas and saw the reason for the problems of modern society in the irrationality of reason (*Dialectic of Enlightenment*). In their view it was not capitalism itself that was responsible for the oppression of humanity but rather reason and rationality. In postulating the existence of certain *objective truths*, reason itself had turned on the people, since the contestation of such objective truths was deemed impossible. So whatever was called an objective truth was then seen to be out of reach of any criticism. So social conventions, certain forms of dehumanization at the workplace or in institutions could easily be framed as objective truths and therefore be beyond critique. Essential to this critique of reason is the differentiation between

1. **Technological rationality**, marked by a scientific approach to all human affairs. Understanding all human relations as potential problems to be solved and thus gaining control over social life and ultimately humanity itself. and
2. **Individualistic rationality**, a critical attitude that is marked by a complete freedom of thought and can measure all social relations by the individual's own subjective interests, values, standards and ideas.

But since they did not recognize the role of the proletariat as the initiator of the necessary social change, they saw it as the task of critical theorists themselves to take up that role. They saw critical theorists as the intellectual extension of the working class, the ones capable of recognizing social dynamics and going beyond the limits of the class constraining proletarian thought. Therefore, it would be up to them to devise a new society and to initiate the necessary change to bring it about - this ideal society would then be a classless society. Critical theorists, however, failed to mention any concrete ways in which such a social change could be initiated and in which critical theorists would actually engage and interact with the proletariat in whose services they claimed to be thinking.

# Works

In the series *Studies in Prejudice* Horkheimer and Adorno exmamined Anti-Semitism from a range of different disciplines and perspectives. In one of the books of the series *The Authoritarian Personality* the two developed a fascism scale "f-scale" in order to single out the circumstances and personality traits of people prone to develop anti-semitic sentiments. They emphasized that personal background, socialization in the family and broader social context especially shape the individual's potential to become fascist. A fascist personality would be characterized by submissiveness, a conformity to dominant values and contempt for outsiders.

In the *Dialectic of Enlightenment*, Horkheimer and Adorno postulated that the enlightenment had had to contradictory consequences. On the one hand it had led to technological progress and greater individual freedom but on the other hand this very same progress had led to new forms of domination and oppression.

# References

1. ↑  Appelrouth, Scott, Desfor Edles, Laura, *Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory*, pp. 396-407