A Study On The Idea Of Immanent Critique Of The Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School has gone through nearly a hundred years of history.As the successor of Karl Marx’s critical philosophy,it has profoundly affected our theory and reality.Critical Theory has shown unique advantages in getting rid of dogmatism,breaking through the boundaries of traditional disciplines,and overcoming the positivist tendencies of social sciences.These advantages are closely related to an immanent critical stance that the school has consciously adopted since its inception.From Adorno,Habermas to Honneth,to Jaeggi,one of the core figures of the Frankfurt School today,Critical Theorists have proposed different models of Critical Theory,primarily because of their different understandings and applications of immanent critique.Moreover,as far as the development of the School itself is concerned,Critical Theorists often have a constant dialogue with their predecessors and confront the views of their peers because of their shared concerns about important issues of history and reality.The discussion within these ideological traditions is itself an immanent critique.The study on the idea of “immanent critique” of the Frankfurt School requires a synchronic conceptual analysis and a diachronic review of the history of thought.As for the conceptual analysis,two key issues need to be involved: one is the normative basis of critique,or the question of the criteria and validity of critique;the other is the question of the motivation and goal of critique,or what is the logical structure of critique.Furthermore,the uniqueness of immanent critique makes these two issues highly interrelated.The immanent critique of the Frankfurt School is rooted in the critique of reason tradition which is initiated by Kant and then through Hegel to Marx.Their critical philosophy determined the development of this concept.According to the relationship between “critique” and “practice”,the concept of immanent critique is essentially a “critique immanent in practice”.What is unique about the logical structure of immanent critique is the special connection between the immanence process and the concept of reason(rationality)that transcends context.The idea of “immanent critique” of the Frankfurt School is closely connected with the object of critique and advocates reflexive reflection on its generation,operation,and applicability by grounding its position or basis in the object.Therefore,it can elucidate the past and present,transcending differences or oppositions;it can also reveal active possibilities within the object,and commit to the optimal development or healthy growth of the object.The idea of “immanent critique”,in turn,can then be understood as the exploration of rational potential or the reconstruction of normative structures.When we push such an understanding to the level of the basic structure of philosophical anthropology,then the emancipation process of human reason,the writing process of human spiritual history,and the learning process on which the reproduction of human life depends,can also be understood as a form of immanent critique.