[FRA:] Totalizing critiques

[Ralph Dumain]

Two more essays, online:

<http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/feenberg/vogel3.htm>A 
Fresh Look at Lukács: on Steven Vogel's 
<http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/feenberg/vogel3.htm>Against 
Nature by Andrew Feenberg (Rethinking Marxism, Winter 1999, pp. 84-92)

<http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/feenberg/marhab.html>Marcuse 
Or Habermas: Two Critiques of Technology by Andrew Feenberg



At 12:11 AM 1/15/2008, Ralph Dumain wrote:
>I'll have to find my notes, since I can't remember what I thought of
>this book, which I read some time ago.
>
>I have not read, and am curious about:
>
>Alford, C. Fred. Science and the Revenge of Nature: Marcuse and
>Habermas. Tampa: University of South Florida Press, 1985.
>
>There is also this article I have yet to read:
>
>Vogel, Steven. 'Marcuse and the "New Science"', in Herbert Marcuse: A
>Critical Reader, edited by John Abromeit and W. Mark Cobb (New York:
>Routledge, 2003), pp. 385-394.
>
>Marcuse's position is definitely the weakest.  One must note that
>there were times when Adorno and I think Horkheimer made gestures
>toward the natural sciences while admitting their unpreparedness to
>tackle them.
>
>Their more serious weakness was their failure to distinguish
>positivism as an ideology of natural science from natural science
>itself.  But I could be wrong, as I have not been able to consult THE
>POSITIVIST DISPUTE IN GERMAN SOCIOLOGY.
>
>All of this, though, is quite obsolete, as is Lukacs.  The problem
>remains the problem of the "two cultures"; you can't claim
>universality when you are only a specialist, and the Frankfurters,
>and even worse, their footnote-whores today, were trapped within just
>one of these cultures.  But the Frankfurters at least were pioneers
>in addressing real problems.  Whereas today's grad students have
>nothing to say, nothing at all, but to narcissistically regurgitate
>the same old tired shit.
>
>But in fact, there really is work to be done, in light of the
>multifarious obscurantism that rules the contemporary scene, as
>science and the popular consciousness fall to pieces as civilization
>itself teeters on the brink--thanks to the extremely retrograde
>political situation in the USA.
>
>
>At 11:45 PM 1/14/2008, matthew piscioneri wrote:
>
> >An outstanding book on the issue of nature and CT (broadly speaking
> >as Western Marxism) is Steven Vogel's:
> >
> >_Against Nature: The concept of nature in Critical Theory_
> >
> >an online version:
> >
> >http://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7 
> l0a0EMzwRQC&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=vogel+critical+theory&ots=Tmh05xSssF&sig=RTaOIjN7sf7MytHnY2UBqCo2kT0#PPA6,M1
> >
> >
> >I say outstanding cos of the clarity of Vogel's writing and the
> >depth of his analysis even though I "suspect" Vogel of leaning over
> >into the abyss of Idealism albeit via a social constructivist epistemology.
> >
> >It's an interesting (and I think slightly "devious") move to abstain
> >from ontology in favour of epistemology to then make claims that
> >have huge implications for ontology :-).
> >