Showing papers on "Critical theory published in 1966"
Journal Article•
TL;DR: A distinction drawn by Marx and Engels in a section on the history of philosophy in The Holy Family can be found in this paper, where they observe two divergent trends stemming from the materialist rationalism of the Enlightenment: one tendency eliminated metaphysical and religious explanation from the natural order, and eventually merged into the positive sciences.
Abstract: It will be helpful in opening this discussion if we follow a distinction drawn by Marx and Engels in a section on the history of philosophy in The Holy Family. Here they observe two divergent trends stemming from the materialist rationalism of the Enlightenment. One tendency eliminated metaphysical and religious explanation from the natural order, and eventually merged into the positive sciences. The other was concentrated on a philosophic doctrine of man which insisted on his original goodness and educability; this tendency was the prior basis for the critique of social conditions that issued in the Socialist and communist movement. At the risk of excessive compression, then, we will note that two separate human projects have evolved under the aegis of Reason, each with its characteristic set of institutions, methods and norms. Some recent theorizing has set itself the task of describing the relationship between scientific reason and critical-social reason, and mapping out their respective domains. The problem of mutually ordering the two rationalities is especially urgent in the planes of psychology and social philosophy, since natural science and critical reason must both lay claim to a theory of man. The biological and behavioural sciences are bound, in working upon and with human material, to reach some general conclusions about the terms that govern man's actions and transactions. Equally the political theorist, or for that matter the everyday activist, has to arrive at some overall view of human action and the considerations which guide it. How far the human theory evolved by natural science can ever be integrated with that of a critical sociology, and how far the logic of the scientist is a separate enterprise from that of the critic, are likely to be questions of some moment as scientific education penetrates society and enters the mental formation of new recruits to the Labour Movement.
6 citations