Critical Humanism of the Frankfurt School as Social Critique

Oliver Kozlarek is professor at the Facultad de Filosofía “Samuel Ramos” at Universidad Michoacana in Morelia, Mexico.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionWhy “Critical Humanism”?The Anti-humanism That is NonePseudohumanism – The Contradictions of Neoliberal ModernityHumanism as a Practice of Social Critique – The legacy of Critical TheoryReferencesPart I The Neoliberal “Abolition of Man” and SocietyChapter 1: The “Abolition of Man”Toward a Critique of “Neoliberal Modernity”From McDonaldization to Star Cult – The Corporate Culture of NeoliberalismNeoliberalism and the Abolition of DemocracyThe “Cultural Revolution” of Neoliberalism – A Perfect Ideology“Hyperculture” and “Cultural Essentialism” as Varieties of “Affirmative Culturalism”Culture Criticism as the Sign of the Totalization of CultureCulture Criticism as Social CriticismNeoliberalism and the Academic Storm Against Enlightenment and HumanismPostmodernism: The “Cultural Logic” of Neoliberal CapitalismPostcolonialism versus SocietyPosthumanism: Simulating HumanityThe “Anthropocene”: From the Abolition to the Perversion of “Man”The Humanistic Mask of NeoliberalismThe End of Neoliberalism?References Part II The Claim for a Humane Society and the Priority of Critical Social ResearchChapter 2: Max Horkheimer: Humanism as Critical Social ResearchCritical Social Research Against “Philosophical Anthropology”Cosmopolitan Humanism as ReconciliationHorkheimer’s Critical Theory as “Active Humanism”ReferencesChapter 3: Herbert Marcuse: Humanism and the Primacy of Critical Social TheoryMarcuse’s “New Foundations of Historical Materialism”“Philosophy and Critical Theory”Humanization through CultureFrom Philosophy to Critical Social TheoryCritical Humanism and Critical Social TheoryReferences Chapter 4: Erich Fromm’s “Normative Humanism” as Intellectual MinimalismErich Fromm’s “Normative Humanism”The “Social Character” between “Having” and “Being”The Social and Cultural Scientific Tasks of “Normative Humanism”ReferencesChapter 5: Theodor W. Adorno: Critique of the “New Type of Man” and the Search for “Real Humanity”What does “Real Humanity” Mean?Adorno’s Anthropology of the “New Type of Man”Adorno’s Anthropology of the “New Type of Man” as Critical Social ResearchDialectic of EnlightenmentAuthoritarian PersonalityMinima MoraliaAdorno’s Humanism: From the Loss of “Real Humanity” to Critical HumanismEducation in the Sense of a Humanistic CultureThe Public Sphere and Sociology at the Service of HumanityFrom Mastery Over Nature to a Humane SocietyReferencesChapter 6: Walter Benjamin: The Critique of Violence as a Critique of PowerRemarks on the History of Publication and ReceptionCapitalism as a Religion and the Cunning of Instrumental RationalityThe Critique of Violence as a Critique of Unbalanced Power“Critique of Violence” Today: The pProblem of the DisempoweredReferencesChapter 7: Bolívar Echeverría: “Critical Discourse”, Modernity and the Search for “Real Humanity”“Critical Discourse” and Revolution“Critical Discourse” after 1989The Theory of Modernity as Critique of Modernity“Real Modernity” in the Shadow of Capitalism“Real Humanity” and the Resistance of Life Forms“The Revolution will not be Televised” (Gil Scott Heron)ReferencesConclusions: Where do We Go from Here? From Critical Humanism to a Necessary Debate about SocietyReferences

This is a book with potential to deeply re-orient the tradition of critical theory. Kozlarek's idea of a critical humanism as a paradigm for a committed form of social critique compels us to link critical theory with ethical and political action and place philosophy into engaged contact with the world. Kozlarek shows us that humanism is the true basis of critical theory, It is an overdue intervention that needs to be read by all who are committed to the critical project.