Grounding critical theory in the anthropology of knowledge generated unresolved conceptual tensions.
Evidence
This justification for a critical theory of society in terms of an anthropology of knowledge involved a number of problems, however. Among these was the tension between the assumption that there existed a unified generic subject, on the one hand, and the foundation provided by the structures of intersubjectivity for a practical and emancipatory interest in knowledge, on the other. There was also the problem of the dissimilarity between technological and practical interest in knowledge, whose fundamental value for the reproduction of the human species was obvious, and an emancipatory interest in knowledge where there was apparently more at stake than reproduction and self-preservation, namely the possibility of humane existence in freedom and dignity. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 674
Categorization
- XREF: Links to the earlier discussion of knowledge-constitutive interests (technological, practical, emancipatory). — connects to: Habermas grounded critical theory in communication theory rather than the anthropology of knowledge. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2693; Habermas grounded society’s critical standard in reason embedded within language itself — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 607; Social relations reduce to structures of knowledge in Schutz’s extreme sociology
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Habermas grounded critical theory in communication theory rather than the anthropology of knowledge. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2693; Habermas grounded society’s critical standard in reason embedded within language itself — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 607; Social relations reduce to structures of knowledge in Schutz’s extreme sociology