The Frankfurt School 3800-SF22-S
The seminar will be devoted to the critical theory developed by the representatives of the first generation of the Frankfurt School (Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse, Fromm, Benjamin, Neumann, Pollock, Lowenthal). We will begin with a reconstruction of the idea of critical thought and dialectics, as understood by these authors, as well as their attitude toward the philosophical tradition (especially toward German idealism). Then we will examine their critical theory of society and culture. In the first case we will focus on the concept of domination helping to understand the phenomenon of fascism and to describe the logic of power in ‘late capitalism’. Its important element is also an application of the revised psychoanalytic theory. As for the critical theory of culture as cultural industry, it reveals the mechanisms of schematisation and formatting of subjective sensibility, at the same time opening the thought for an encounter with the un-formattable.
Type of course
Mode
Learning outcomes
Acquired knowledge:
- students will be familiar with the idea of critical theory developed by the authors belonging to the first generation of the Frankfurt School and with its applications in the analysis of society and culture
- students will be aware of the chosen norms that constitute and regulate social structures and institutions, and able to identify the sources of these norms, their nature and many ways they influence human behaviour
Acquired skills:
- students will read and interpret selected literary texts from philosophical perspective, investigating the transformations of the modern bourgeois ethos and the forms of its critique
- students will be able to identify links between the formation of ideas and social/cultural processes
- students will be able to apply in a correct manner the philosophical vocabulary pertaining to the problematic of the course
Acquired social competence:
- students will be aware of the range of knowledge they acquired and understand the need for continual education
- students will be open to new ideas and ready to change their views in the light of available data and arguments
Assessment criteria
Grading will be based on presentations or essays. Presentations should elaborate the problematic discussed during particular meetings by deepening it and referring to additional sources. Essays should contain well thought out, coherent and informed elaborations of the chosen aspects of the course’s problematic.
Acceptable number of missed classes without formal explanation: 2 in a semester
Bibliography
Literature (fragments)
T.W. Adorno, Dialektyka negatywna
T.W. Adorno, Dialektyka negatywna
T.W. Adorno, Filozofia nowej muzyki
T.W. Adorno, Minima moralia
T.W. Adorno, O literaturze
T.W. Adorno, Sztuka i sztuki
T.W. Adorno/Horkheimer, Dialektyka oświecenia
W. Benjamin, Konstelacje
W. Benjamin, Twórca jako wytwórca
E. Fromm, Patologia normalności
E. Fromm, Rewizja psychoanalizy
E. Fromm, Ucieczka od wolności
M. Horkheimer, Społeczna funkcja filozofii
H. Marcuse, Człowiek jednowymiarowy
H. Marcuse, Eros i cywilizacja
H. Marcuse, Hegel i rewolucja
F. Neumann, Behemot
Szkoła frankfurcka (anthology)
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: