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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