Abstract
Philosophy, in its many forms, ought to concern itself primarily with an understanding of the processes by which social formations and human lives are improved and denigrated. The emergence of critical theory in the 20th century exemplifies this attempt to understand the structural influences on thought and perception as necessary capacities for progressive change. While contemporary immanent critics such as Axel Honneth, Rahel Jaeggi, and Charles Taylor participate in developing and outlining mechanisms of change, they have lost a crucial element of earlier Frankfurt-style forms of critical theory. That is, real social change requires both an understanding of the mechanisms by which change is possible and the necessary structural changes required to enable those mechanisms. By reintroducing the critiques of modern industrial society within the works of Adorno and Marcuse, as well as the structures of openness and attention in the work of Simone Weil, I argue that we must not ever separate our basic capacities for the thought and attention from lived human experiences which are structurally and forcibly shaped.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
Critical Theory, Attention, Openness, Change, Identity, Time, Materialism, Dialectics, Relationality
