Critical Theory

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

The history of Critical Theory is important for understanding the role and the position in critical theory in social sciences and in case studies. Originally, Critical Theory linked philosophy closely to the humanities and to social sciences by emphasizing the contextual empirical social research and normative truth claims, morality, and justice simultaneously, all in the same research agenda. The term Critical Theory with capital letters is used when referring to original ideas, and critical theory when referring to more general critical theories in social sciences that have closer or more distant relationship with the original specificities of Critical Theory. The newer versions of critical theory have developed their own forms of critical practices and critical research agendas through several current debates. Key conceptual background ideas and overview are needed for understanding the contemporary varieties of critical theory in case studies and in social sciences in general.

Critical theory has strong roots in specific fields and developments within European philosophy, on the one hand, and historical time and societal situation on the other. In its historical form the idea, tradition, and concept of Critical Theory refers to the intellectual work by philosophers, sociologists, and social thinkers that became known as the Frankfurt School. The Frankfurt School was located at the Institute for Social Sciences (Institut für Sozialforschung) at Frankfurt am Main University in Germany in the 1920s. During World War II, the Institute was brought to New York, to Columbia University; it returned to Frankfurt in 1950s, with Max Horkheimer as director of the Institute of Social Research. Major thinkers in the Frankfurt School group include Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, and Jürgen Habermas.

The Frankfurt School's Critical Theory has the scientific and practical intentions to relate the knowledge achieved through research and mundane social life with each other. In practice, empirical research adopts the critical reflection as method, in addition to theoretical aims. According to Critical Theory, the research needs to relate the philosophy and the social sciences and their ways of describing the world through explanation and understanding. The scholars involved in the early stages of the Frankfurt School were concerned with the complexities of the economic foundation of society, the political–legal factors of society, and the intellectual life in community and society in general. In research, the aim was to combine moral views and practical questions and implications of social research.

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