Work · Socialism, Anarchism, Marxism & Critical Theory
Traditional and Critical Theory
Theory as a moment of social practice.
Introduction
Horkheimer published the essay in 1937 in the Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, the journal of the Institute for Social Research, which he directed from exile in New York. “Traditional” theory, from Descartes to modern positivism, treats knowledge as a system of propositions produced by specialists and ignores its own place in the social division of labour. “Critical” theory takes society itself as its object, including the conditions of its own knowing, and is guided by an interest in reasonable conditions of life. In the same volume Marcuse’s “Philosophy and Critical Theory” developed the programme further. The essay gave the Frankfurt School its name for its own approach.
Connections
Builds on
- Theses on Feuerbach1845 · Karl Marx
- History and Class Consciousness1923 · Georg Lukács
More works by Max Horkheimer
As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made