* RE: Re: Douglas Kellner
david wachtfogel
dwvogel at www-mail.huji.ac.il
Wed, 16 Jul 97 1:44 +0200
>BUT theory is tested as to its saliency in practice and one could argue
>that theories that don't help change the world as well as understanding it
>are lacking from the more activist perspective within the Frankfurt
>school. It is especially self-defeating, I think, to quote Adorno on
>"Resignation" as if this "solves" the theory/practice problem, or absolves
>theory from having to redeem itself in practice.....
>
>Douglas Kellner, Dept of Philosophy, Univ of Texas, Austin, TX 78712
My "self-defeating" quotation from "Resignation" was not meant to solve
the theory/practice problem. It was meant to answer josh rojan's question
"to what degree were post-WWII A and H 'engaged'." As you all know, H was
the least 'engaged' of the two, at least after the publication of D of E.
Quoting Adorno's "resignation" answers the question asked by showing that
A was not 'engaged' on the political-economic level.
But this does not "solve the theory/practice problem". Though there has
been talk on this list of 'theological' aspects in critical theory,
Adorno's opinion is not the word of god, and his opinion cannot 'solve' any
problem. As Douglas Kellner mentions there is a "more activist perspective
within the Frankfurt school." A and H, in their later years, did not hold by
this perspective.
-- David W