Critical theory

About: Critical theory is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5372 publications have been published within this topic receiving 164765 citations.

Questioning and Organizing Attention: Toward a Critical Theory of Planning and Administrative Practice

Abstract: To understand what planning and administrative analysts do, and what they can yet do, we need a theory of planning and public administration that combines vision with practice, a theory neither solely utopian nor opportunistic. Jurgen Habermas's "critical communications theory of society" allows us to locate the planning analyst's questioning and shaping of attention, thus organizing and designing, within a political, institutional world of systematically but unnecessarily distorted (and so possibly alterable) communications. A critical theory of administration andplanning argues that the planning analysts' organizing of attention can and ought ethically to work to foster true political discourse, dialogue, and the possibilities of genuinely democratic politics.

Pragmatism, critical theory and business ethics: Converging lines

Abstract: There is a “Pragmatist turn” visible in the field of organization science today, resulting from a renewed interest in the work of Pragmatist philosophers like Dewey, Mead, Peirce, James and others, and in its implications for the study of organizations. Following Wicks and Freeman (1998), in the past decade Pragmatism has also entered the field of business ethics, which, however, has not been uniformly applauded in that field. Some (Critical) scholars fear that Pragmatism may enhance already existing positivist and managerialist tendencies in current business ethics, while others see more emancipatory potential in Pragmatism, arguing that it complements and supports stakeholder theory. In this paper, a comparison of the philosophical underpinnings of Pragmatist and Critical conceptions of business ethics is offered, concentrating on the Pragmatism of John Dewey and the Critical theory of the Frankfurt School, in particular of Axel Honneth. It is argued that these two developed along two converging lines. Along the first line, Dewey was far more skeptical and critical of capitalism than is often thought. Along the second line, the reactions to Pragmatism of Frankfurt School Critical theorists developed over time from generally hostile (Horkheimer, Marcuse), to partially inclusive (Habermas), to more fully integrative (Honneth). At the crossroads of these converging lines a Pragmatist Critical perspective is developed and exemplified, and its implications for business ethics are outlined.

How Can the Study of the Humanities Inform the Study of Biosemiotics

Abstract: This essay – a collection of contributions from 10 scholars working in the field of biosemiotics and the humanities – considers nature in culture. It frames this by asking the question ‘Why does biosemiotics need the humanities?’. Each author writes from the background of their own disciplinary perspective in order to throw light upon their interdisciplinary engagement with biosemiotics. We start with Donald Favareau, whose originary disciplinary home is ethnomethodology and linguistics, and then move on to Paul Cobley’s contribution on general semiotics and Kalevi Kull’s on biosemiotics. This is followed by Cobley (again) with Frederick Stjernfelt who contribute on biosemiotics and learning, then Gerald Ostdiek from philosophy, and Morten Tonnessen focusing upon ethics in particular. Myrdene Anderson writes from anthropology, while Timo Maran and Louise Westling provide a view from literary study. The essay closes with Wendy Wheeler reflecting on the movement of biosemiotics as a challenge, often via the ecological humanities, to the kind of so-called ‘postmodern’ thinking that has dominated humanities critical thought in the universities for the past 40 years. Virtually all the matters gestured to in outline above are discussed in much more satisfying detail in the topics which follow.

Hermeneutics and Critical Theory in Ethics and Politics

Abstract: Founded in the early nineteenth century by F. D. E. Schleiermacher, modern hermeneutics was designed as a means for interpreting texts in a way that emphasized the historical context of the interpretation. Since the 1960s, however, hermeneutics has been increasingly generalized as a method for inquiring into the world of human affairs. These twelve essays, written by philosophers, examine the usefulness, objectivity, and range of applicability of interpretive methods in ethics and politics, with the goal of isolating the role of methodology to allow debate to focus on substantive conflicts. Michael Kelly is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, where he is also Managing Editor of the journal "Philosophical Forum. "The essays in "Hermeneutics and Critical Theory in Ethics and Politics "originally appeared in "Philosophical Forum." Contents: Part 1, Ethics. In the Shadow of Aristotle and Hegel: Communicative Ethics and Current Controversies in Practical Philosophy, Seyla Benhabib. Justice and Solidarity: On the Discussion Concerning "Stage 6," Jurgen Habermas. The Contingent Person and the Existential Choice, Agnes Heller. MacIntyre, Habermas, and Philosophical Ethics, Michael Kelly. Beyond Good-Evil: A Plea for a Hermeneutic Ethics, Adi Ophir. Part 2, Politics. Rational Reconstruction and Social Criticism: Habermas's Model of Interpretive Social Science, Kenneth Baynes. On the Conception of the Common Interest: Between Procedure and Substance, Carol Gould. The Politics of the Ineffable: Derrida's Deconstructionism, Thomas McCarthy. Kant and the Interpretation of Nature and History, Rudolf Makkreel. A Critique of Philosophical Conversation, Michael Walzer.Rawls, Habermas, and Real Talk: A Reply to Walzer, Georgia Warnke. Social Interpretation and Political Theory: Walzer and His Critics, Georgia Warnke. Models of Freedom in the Modem World, Albrecht Wellmer.