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Critique, Norm, and Utopia: A Study of the Foundations of Critical Theory
Displaying an impressive command of complex materials, Seyla Benhabib reconstructs the history of theories from a systematic point of view and examines the origins and transformations of the concept of critique from the works of Hegel to Habermas. Through investigating the model of the philosophy of the subject, she pursues the question of how Hegel´s critiques might be useful for reforumulating the foundations of critical social theory.
- GenresPhilosophyFeminism
455 pages, Paperback
First published February 5, 1986
About the author
Seyla Benhabib
68 books81 followersSeyla Benhabib is a Turkish Jewish professor of political science and philosophy at Yale, and director of the program in Ethics, Politics, and Economics, and a well-known contemporary philosopher. She previously taught in the departments of philosophy at Boston University, SUNY Stony Brook, the New School for Social Research, and the Department of Government at Harvard University.
She is the author of several books, most notably about the philosophers Hannah Arendt and Jürgen Habermas. She has also worked with many important philosophers and scholars, including Herbert Marcuse. Benhabib is well known for combining critical theory with feminist theory.
She is the author of several books, most notably about the philosophers Hannah Arendt and Jürgen Habermas. She has also worked with many important philosophers and scholars, including Herbert Marcuse. Benhabib is well known for combining critical theory with feminist theory.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 3, 2012
I totally concur with Peter Gathje's review. I had this book on my shelf for years without reading it. 14 years later I finally got around to it. And it is a *fantastic* discussion and assessment of the major figures of critical theory, including Hegel and Marx. I attended a very critical theory rich graduate school in philosophy and think it may be even more meaningful and useful to me now as it could have been then.
The criticisms she offers at each stage of the main theoretical appropriations of a general critical theory of society by Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse, Habermas are clear and thoughtful. The positive recommendations she argues for in extending critical theory are well-founded. Benhabib argues that we can embrace and extend the communicative ethics laid out by Jurgen Habermas. Her suggestion to modify the theory of communicative action to integrate a concept of, and practices with regard to, a 'concrete as opposed to a generalized other' lead her in very interesting directions. Specifically she calls upon critical theory to integrate into its conceptual framework ideas of 'friendship' and 'solidarity' and other conceptual discriminations of the 'concrete' , felt, and lived experience of human subjects. She applies her admirably sharp and focused critical skills to unpacking the consequences of Habermas' adaptation of Mead's concept of the 'generalized other'.
I think that perhaps her discussion of Adorno is a bit quick with regard to the turn to Mimesis and aesthetics as the location of emanicpation. That is, I think Adorno might have something a bit more to say in retort to her critique that he is still operating under the pretensions of 'the philosophy of the subject' especially in light of the dialectical unpacking of the art object and its potential in Aesthetic Theory.
And while this is welcome and persuasive as a critique of Habermas, I think scholarship regarding Mead and Dewey in the 26 years since Benhabib's book shows that the concrete other was very much a part of their own critical theories of democracy. That is, as we see in such works as Dewey's The Public and Its Problems, 'solidarity', 'friendship', 'need' and the 'concrete other' are very much present alongside a demystifying critique of the colonization of the lifeworld by 'instrumental reason' in Weber's sense. Axel Honneth and Hans Joas in particular have shown this to be the case. But this is just to say that Benhabib has allies in Mead and Dewey with regard to achieving a situtation where the 'negation of the existent in the name of a future that bursts open the possibilities of the present'. Indeed, as Joas has shown, this is Dewey's understanding of critique in a nutshell.
Again, this is a *fantastic* book.
The criticisms she offers at each stage of the main theoretical appropriations of a general critical theory of society by Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse, Habermas are clear and thoughtful. The positive recommendations she argues for in extending critical theory are well-founded. Benhabib argues that we can embrace and extend the communicative ethics laid out by Jurgen Habermas. Her suggestion to modify the theory of communicative action to integrate a concept of, and practices with regard to, a 'concrete as opposed to a generalized other' lead her in very interesting directions. Specifically she calls upon critical theory to integrate into its conceptual framework ideas of 'friendship' and 'solidarity' and other conceptual discriminations of the 'concrete' , felt, and lived experience of human subjects. She applies her admirably sharp and focused critical skills to unpacking the consequences of Habermas' adaptation of Mead's concept of the 'generalized other'.
I think that perhaps her discussion of Adorno is a bit quick with regard to the turn to Mimesis and aesthetics as the location of emanicpation. That is, I think Adorno might have something a bit more to say in retort to her critique that he is still operating under the pretensions of 'the philosophy of the subject' especially in light of the dialectical unpacking of the art object and its potential in Aesthetic Theory.
And while this is welcome and persuasive as a critique of Habermas, I think scholarship regarding Mead and Dewey in the 26 years since Benhabib's book shows that the concrete other was very much a part of their own critical theories of democracy. That is, as we see in such works as Dewey's The Public and Its Problems, 'solidarity', 'friendship', 'need' and the 'concrete other' are very much present alongside a demystifying critique of the colonization of the lifeworld by 'instrumental reason' in Weber's sense. Axel Honneth and Hans Joas in particular have shown this to be the case. But this is just to say that Benhabib has allies in Mead and Dewey with regard to achieving a situtation where the 'negation of the existent in the name of a future that bursts open the possibilities of the present'. Indeed, as Joas has shown, this is Dewey's understanding of critique in a nutshell.
Again, this is a *fantastic* book.
December 28, 2010
This is one the best interpretations of Critical Theory and Habermas' approach to critical theory going. I used this text as an interpretative approach to understanding several of Habermas' works. It is accessible, straighforward and one of the better books available on critical theory.
December 23, 2015
Benhabib is an exceptionally clear thinker, and here she takes us through the frustrating terrain of the normativity of critical social theory. It contains a great explanation of what Habermas is trying to do, and how he is differentiated from his predecessors like Hegel, Marx and the Frankfurt School. It also contains a searching criticism of Habermas' discourse ethics... Where Benhabib accuses Habermas of falling back into the same kinds of problems of his predecessors when he must use philosophically historical narratives to privilege his universal pragmatics over other contemporary post-traditional approaches.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews