Phenomenology and Critical Theory

Two of the most influential schools of thought of the 20th Century, phenomenology and Critical Theory, are still very significant for the social and human sciences in current times. But the relationship of these traditions has been far from unproblematic and there was a tension between early representatives of both traditions characterized by prejudices, disregard and refusal of communication. The phenomenological discipline first and foremost is based on the works of Edmund Husserl, Max Scheler, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, Alfred Schütz, Emmanuel Levinas etc., while Critical Theory refers to thinkers of the Frankfurt School as Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Jürgen Habermas, Axel Honneth and others. Critical theorists criticized phenomenology as an ideological construct that reproduces unjust social conditions; phenomenologists reproach Critical Theory for being biased not respecting value neutrality. However, current research in both fields is characterized by a growing convergence. On the one hand, current Critical Theory argues, especially following Honneth and Hartmut Rosa, that critique needs to be based on everyday experience of the individual actors with the capacity for “innerworldly transcendence”. On the other hand, phenomenologists concentrate on specific critical subjects as social inequality, power, violence, but also gender, race, queer issues etc., as highlighted by Critical Phenomenology. This session unites both disciplines and especially investigates the convergence of both schools of thought.