Fall 2018 Seminar: The Frankfurt School and the paradoxical idea of progress

Thinking beyond Critical Theory with Stanley Aronowitz

Left to right: Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Ernst Bloch

(12–2pm): an eight week course -$15 per session or $100 for all eight sessions.

This seminar will address the idea of progress in History through a careful and close reading of texts from Adorno and Horkheimer. Does progress really exist beyond minor reformist tendencies or is it a major symptom of the dialectic of enlightenment that dialectical positivity comes to a standstill? Can we rethink a new principle of hope that can build movement politics against the cynicism and pessimism of the present?

Readings:

Adorno, Theodor. “Progress” in Critical Models, pp. 143–160 (Columbia University Press, 2005 edition).

Adorno, Theodor. “On Subject and Object” in Critical Models, pp. 245–258 ( Columbia University Press , 2005 edition).

Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction “ in Illuminations, edited with Introduction by Hannah Arendt and trans. By Harry Zohn pp.217–251 (Schocken Books, 1969).

Marcuse, Herbert. Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud , including a political preface 1966 ( Beacon paperback , 1974).

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Seminar Schedule and Details

december

17dec6:30 pm8:30 pmGerman Idealism and its Aftermathwith Michael Pelias

Event Details

Given the multiple Left, Liberal and Neo-conservative interpretations of German idealism in terms of the end(s) of history and or its new beginning, we will interpret the world historical spirit 1. in the light of the enlightenment 2. a close reading of Hegel’s Phenomenology engage the contemporary world and its multiple variations. By thinking through the aftermath of the closure of Western philosophical thought and its meaning for the neo-liberal epoch, we will encounter some of the poetic responses to this closure and the attempts made philosophically to reorient thought. Authors read will include Kant, Hegel, Mallarme, and Rimbaud among others.