Research Network on Dialectics & Society
An International Community of Practice
*The following is reposted from Marxists.org. Antithesis. – For those who do not play along, there exists the danger of considering themselves better than others and misusing their critique of society as an ideology for their own private interest. While feeling their way towards making their own existence into the flickering picture of the right … Read more
*The following is reposted from Marxists.org. Doctor, that is kind of you. – Nothing is harmless anymore. The small joys, the expressions of life, which seemed to be exempt from the responsibility of thought, not only have a moment of defiant silliness, of the cold-hearted turning of a blind eye, but immediately enter the service … Read more
*The following is reposted from Marxists.org. Final clarity. – The newspaper obituary for a businessman once read: “The breadth of his conscience competed with the goodness of his heart.” The lapse committed by the mourners in the rarefied, elevated language called for at such times, the involuntary admission that the kind-hearted deceased was devoid of … Read more
*The following article by Jeanne Willette is reposted from Art History Unstuffed, originally posted March 2, 2012. Theodor Adorno and “Negative Dialectics” THEODOR ADORNO (1903-1969) AND IDENTITY Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno wrote their critique of the culture of Western civilization, Dialectic of Enlightenment during the Second World War. When the book was published in German in … Read more
*The following is reposted from Marxists.org. Fish in water. – Since the comprehensive apparatus of distribution of highly concentrated industry has dissolved the circulation-sphere, this latter begins an astonishing post-existence. While the economic basis for the occupation of go-betweens disappears, the private life of innumerable people becomes that of agents and go-betweens, indeed the realm … Read more
*The following is reposted from Marxists.org. Grassy seat. – The relationship to parents is undergoing a sad, shadowy change. They have lost their awe through their economic powerlessness. Once we rebelled against their insistence on the reality principle, the sobriety which was always ready to recoil into the rage against those who do not renounce. … Read more
*The following is reposted from Marxists.org. Minima Moralia Reflections from the damaged life Part One 1944 Life does not live – Ferdinand Kürnberger 1 For Marcel Proust. – The son of well-to-do parents who, whether out of talent or weakness, chooses a so-called intellectual occupation as an artist or scholar, has special difficulties with … Read more
*The following article is reposted from Marxists.org. Aggressiveness in Advanced Industrial Society Written: in German in 1967; First Published: by Beacon Press, Boston as Negations: Essays in Critical Theory by Herbert Marcuse; Source: Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate. Mark-up: Andy Blunden. I propose to consider here the strains and stresses in the so-called “affluent society,” a … Read more
The Authoritarian Personality *The following is reposted from Marxists.org. First published: in Deutsche Universitätszeitung, Band 12 (Nr. 9, 1957), pp. 3-4; Translated: by Florian Nadge; CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2011. What do we mean by “authoritarian personality”? We usually see a clear difference between the individual who wants to rule, control, or … Read more
(Here below, the editorial of the n. 4, 2016 of the Journal ‘Polis’, titled ‘The contribution of Critical Theory in understanding society‘, edited by Federico Sollazzo) Abstract Is Critical Theory a part of our knowledge we can access just in a kind of museum of history of ideas, or is Critical Theory a living part … Read more