Can the New be Born? Critical Theory in Times of Interregnum. Part II

Critical Theory’s prospective horizon of the future appears difficult to fathom in the current moment. Rather than a symptom of decay or irrelevance, it seems to reflect an interregnum period. Critical theory presumes that there are immanent developments that represent a potential for progressive transformation, whether it be, for instance, the democratising potential of communicative rationality or the claims to justice inherent in struggles for recognition. Further, critical theory contends that its perspective stands in a reflexive relationship to this transformative potential, both through disclosing sources of immanent-transcendence and drawing its justification from them. However, there are a range of contemporary challenges that could undermine these basic presuppositions of critical theory and that are indicative of a need for new Zeitdiagnosen – diagnoses of the times. First, there is the still indeterminate potential of the most recent developments in critical theory and their social diagnoses. Second, there are the manifold and protracted crises of contemporary capitalist societies, including long-term consequences of the global financial crisis in the context of the dismantling of the welfare state, the ecological crisis and its intensifying effects, the consolidation of authoritarian regimes and the erosion of democratic institutions, including the re-entry into mainstream discussions of fascist discourses, and the consequences of pathological individualism and deep seated alienation, which make account for some of the other tendencies. While there are a range of progressive changes in the contemporary period, the uncertainty about transcending the conditions giving rise to crises could mean a new dialectic of enlightenment.