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Name:
Frankfurt School
Franfurter Schule
Institut für Sozialforschung
Definition:
The Frankfurt School was founded in 1921 by a German-Jewish businessman and was
attached to the University of Frankfurt. It was intended to be a sort of think tank
dedicated to working on problems of labor, socialism and Marxism. However, the Marxism
of the Frankfurt School was in no way traditional.
The Marxism of the Frankfurt School was called critical, and for two reasons. The first was that it did not adhere to the traditional notions of economic and political determinism, but instead adopted a more complex view of economic issues. Secondly, it was profoundly critical of modern capitalist and consumer culture. The Frankfurt School was heavily influenced by the very early writings of Marx, texts which were at that time becoming more widely read among students and intellectuals.
Two of the most influential figures in the Frankfurt School were Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. Curiously, they were also the two who best exemplified its internal contradictions. For example, they both wanted the Frankfurt School to maintain its independence from other institutions, including universities, and this required them to focus on the funding and endowments - Horkheimer, for example, has been described as acting very much like an industrial manager in how he ran the Frankfurt School. Both he and Adorno were also very much concerned with things like academic and social prestige which came with their positions and their history as refugees from Nazi Germany.
Horkheimer and Adorno, like other members of the Frankfurt School, were also deeply suspicious of the development of mass culture in the United States. They believed that it was inherently fascist in nature, assuming that a healthy cultural life could only best be developed from above and through those who knew how to differentiate between that which was uplifting and that which was degrading.
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Related Resources:
What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?
