Habermas, Critical Theory, and Political Economy

Abstract

The relation of Habermas to critical social theory, aka as critical theory, has had a crucial effect on the declining fortunes of this form of neo-Marxism. Marx famously rejects in principle theories, which merely to interpret, since it is necessary, in his view, to change the world. The appearance of the term “critique” in the title of a number of his writings suggests that critique can change the world. Under the influence of the neo-Hegelian Marxists, Korsch and Lukács, Lukács more than Korsch, critical social theory provides a qualified attempt to stake out space for a nontraditional theory that is neither science in Engels’s positivist sense nor traditional philosophy. Ihough finally very different, Marx, Engels, and critical social theory share a crucial concern with the socially emancipatory potential of theory.