Axel Honneth: The Critique of Power: Reflective Stages in a Critical Social Theory (1985/1991)

Axel Honneth’s Critique of Power is a rich interpretation of the history of critical theory, which clarifies its central problems and emphasizes the “social” factors that should provide that theory with a normative and practical orientation.

Honneth focuses on the dialog between French and German social theory that was beginning at the time of Michel Foucault’s death. It traces the common roots of the work of Foucault and Jürgen Habermas to a basic text of the last generation of critical theorists – Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment – and draws from this connection the outline of a program that might unite and surpass their seemingly irreconcilable methods of critiquing power structures. In doing so, Honneth provides a constructive and nonpolemical framework for comparisons between the two theorists. And he presents a novel interpretation of Foucault’s analysis of social systems.

Honneth traces the internal contradictions in critical theory through an analysis of Horkheimer’s early programmatic writings, the Dialectic of Enlightenment, and Adorno’s later social-theoretical writings. He shows how Habermas and Foucault in their distinctive ways reinserted the social world into critical theory but argues that neither operation has been wholly successful. His cogent analysis redirects critical social theory in ways that can draw on the strengths and avoid the weaknesses of the two approaches.

Originally published in German under the title Kritik der Macht. Reflexionsstufen einer kritischen Gesellschaftstheorie, Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1985
Translated by Kenneth Baynes
Publisher MIT Press, 1991
Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought series
ISBN 0262581280, 9780262581288
372 pages

review (Elaine Martin)

publisher
google books

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Alberto Toscano: Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea (2010)

A genealogy of fanaticism—unearthing its long history, before it became a tool in the Clash of Civilizations.

The idea of fanaticism as a deviant or extreme variant of an already irrational set of religious beliefs is today invoked by the West in order to demonize and psychologize any non-liberal politics. Alberto Toscano’s compelling and erudite counter-history explodes this accepted interpretation in exploring the critical role fanaticism played in forming modern politics and the liberal state. Tracing its development from the traumatic Peasants’ War of early sixteenth-century Germany to contemporary Islamism, Toscano tears apart the sterile opposition of ‘reasonableness’ and fanaticism. Instead, in a radical new interpretation, he places the fanatic at the very heart of politics, arguing that historical and revolutionary transformations require a new understanding of his role. Showing how fanaticism results from the failure to formulate an adequate emancipatory politics, this illuminating history sheds new light on an idea that continues to dominate debates about faith and secularism.

Publisher Verso, 2010
ISBN 184467424X, 9781844674244
277 pages

review (Steven Poole, The Guardian)
review (Evgeni V. Pavlov, Rethinking Marxism)
review (Tom Eyers, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books)

publisher
google books

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Berz; Bitsch; Siegert (eds.): FAKtisch. Festschrift für Friedrich Kittler zum 60. Geburtstag (2003) [German]

“Dieser Band würdigt das facettenreiche Werk Friedrich Kittlers, das sich von der Literaturwissenschaft über die Mediengeschichte und die Computerwissenschaft bis hin zur Mathematik, Kulturwissenschaft und Gräzistik erstreckt. Die Beiträge lassen die immense Vielfalt der Disziplinen und Gegenstände erkennen, die durch Kittlers Arbeiten Anregungen erhalten haben und nicht selten geradezu revolutioniert worden sind.”

Edited by Peter Berz, Annette Bitsch, Bernhard Siegert
Publisher Wilhelm Fink, Munich, 2003
ISBN 3770539168, 9783770539161
374 pages

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PDF (no OCR, updated on 2012-12-31)