Over the last six months or more I have been reading about Critical Theory. Perhaps as you read this you are thinking about Critical Race Theory (CRT). That is but one specific focus of Critical Theory; there are many others. The broad and narrow focus of Critical Theory designates several generations of German philosophers and social theorists in the Western European Marxist tradition known as the Frankfurt School. According to these theorists, a “critical” theory may be distinguished from a “traditional” theory according to a specific practical purpose: a theory is critical to the extent that it seeks human “emancipation from slavery”, acts as a “liberating … influence”, and works “to create a world which satisfies the needs and powers” of human beings. So offers Max Horkheimer, one of the leading and founding philosophers of the Frankfurt School. Continue reading →