Critical Theory claims to cure philosophy only from outside its own boundaries
Evidence
Critical Theory, he argued, is therefore less ambitious than traditional philosophy. It does not think itself capable of giving permanent answers to the ageold questions about man’s condition. Instead, it “means to show only the specific social conditions at the root of philosophy’s inability to pose the problem in a more comprehensive way, and to indicate that any other solution [lies] beyond that philosophy’s boundaries. The untruth inherent in all transcendental treatment of the problem thus comes into philosophy ‘from the outside’; hence it can be overcome only outside philosophy.” — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 288
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines Critical Theory’s self-understanding as boundary-aware rather than comprehensive — a core distinction from traditional philosophy.
- XREF: connects to: Critical theory that identifies reason with domination cannot justify its own critique — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 380; Dialectical prose demands every proposition be equally close to the centre — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 83; Discourse theory’s claim that nothing exists outside discourse is reductionism upward (+2 more)