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A Utopian Vision of the Frankfurt School

  • Each writer in the Frankfurt school of critical sociology stressed different aspects of a utopian vision. Three examples of their work from the period of their exile in the United States are examined to reveal these differences: E. FROMM, Escape from Freedom, New York: Avon, 1941; H. Marcuse, Reason and Revolution, Boston: Beacon, 1941; and M. Horkheimer and T. W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, New York: Herder and Herder, 1972. The Frankfurt school hoped to reconcile man and nature in a dialectical relationship, but was unable to communicate this need on a mass basis to their society. Reasons for their failure can be understood by examining a model of successful communication at this level. Aeschylus's The Oresteia (Lattimore, R. Trans, New York: Washington Square Press, 1967) provides such a model, and offers a comparison for the Frankfurt school. The play reveals man's need to harness nature for the betterment of society. The existing polis of Aeschylus's time represented his expression of the new order of rationality, and made it simpler to express abstract ideas, unlike the critical theorist who needed to create a means of expressing abstract ideas. Only a limited medium--the press--was available to the Frankfurt school. The writing styles of the critical theorists are discussed.

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Metadaten
Author:Alvin S. Rosenthal
Parent Title (English):Humanity and Society, Vol 2 (No. 2, 1978), pp. 90-103.
Document Type:Articles
Language:English
Year of first Publication:1978
Release Date:2014/01/28
Format:PDF-scan to download
IdNo:Rosenthal_A_S_1978
Writings about Erich Fromm (Secondary Literature):Articles / Artikel
Erich Fromm's Library and Erich Fromm Archive:Articles / Artikel
Licence (German):
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