Overview of all pages with the tags #Theodor W. Adorno

The future of socialism

What kind of illness is capitalism?

April 2, 2018 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

An abridged version of this article was presented at the 4th Platypus European Conference closing plenary panel discussion, “What is the Future of Socialism?,” with Boris Kagarlitsky (Institute of Globalization and Social Movements), Alex Demirovic (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation), Mark Osborne (Alliance for Workers’ Liberty; Momentum) and Hillel Ticktin (Critique journal), at Goldsmiths University in London on February 17, 2018. The liquidation of [Marxist] theory by dogmatization and thought taboos contributed to the bad practice… The interrelation of both moments [of theory and practice] is not settled once and for all but fluctuates historically… Those who chide theory [for being] anachronistic obey the topos of dismissing, as obsolete, what remains painful [because it was] thwarted… The fact that history has rolled over certain positions will be respected as a verdict on their truth-content only by those who agree with [Friedrich] Schiller that “world history is the world tribunal. [Read More]

The end of the Gilded Age

Discontents of the Second Industrial Revolution today

December 2, 2017 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

THE ACCOUNT OF HISTORY is the theory of the present: How did we get here; and what tasks remain from the past – that however appear to be “new” today? As Adorno put it, “the new is the old in distress.”1 This is true of capitalism and its crisis now. The present crisis is a crisis of the world system of capitalism that emerged in the 20th century, a crisis of the capitalist world created by the Second Industrial Revolution at the end of the 19th century – in fits and starts (such as the two World Wars and the Cold War) but nonetheless consistently and inexorably. [Read More]

Gilded Age History Capitalism Theodor W. Adorno

The politics of Critical Theory

April 2, 2017 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

ON FEBRUARY 17, 2017, as part of its Third European Conference, the Platypus Affiliated Society organized a panel, “The Politics of Critical Theory.” Held at the University of Vienna, the event brought together the following speakers: Chris Cutrone, President of the Platypus Affiliated Society; Martin Suchanek of Workers Power, an international organization fighting to build a Fifth International; and Haziran Zeller of Humboldt University, in Berlin. What follows is an edited transcript of their discussion. [Read More]

Critical Theory Theodor W. Adorno

The Politics Of Critical Theory

Platypus 3rd European Conference, Vienna

March 14, 2017 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

Audio Recording Part One Your browser does not support the audio element Part Two Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Chris Cutrone, Platypus Affilated Society, Chicago Martin Suchanek, Workers Power, Berlin Haziran Zeller, Berlin Description Recently, the New Left Review published a translated conversation between the critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer causing more than a few murmurs and gasps. [Read More]

Critical Theory Theodor W. Adorno

Spectacle, ideology, and rhetoric of the authoritarian personality

November 8, 2016 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

FROM WHICH PSYCHOLOGICAL PRECONDITIONS is it possible to come to a “rational” view of society – a society which, in its current mode of rationality, is arguably less than 200 years old? If such a view is putatively or provisionally achieved, to what extent are contributing psychogenetic factors overcome and left behind, and to what extent do they remain latent or dormant? These are theoretical questions that underlie The Authoritarian Personality study, which, according to the final words of Adorno’s “Remarks on the Authoritarian Personality” (published here for the first time), seeks to study modern society from the “receiver’s end. [Read More]

Theodor W. Adorno Authoritarian Personality

Critical authoritarianism

November 8, 2016 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

Immanent critique WHENEVER APPROACHING ANY PHENOMENON, Adorno’s procedure is one of immanent dialectical critique. The phenomenon is treated as not accidental or arbitrary but as a necessary form of appearance that points beyond itself, indicating conditions of possibility for change. It is a phenomenon of the necessity for change. The conditions of possibility for change indicated by the phenomenon in question are explored immanently, from within. The possibility for change is indicated by a phenomenon’s self-contradictions, which unfold from within itself, from its own movement, and develop from within its historical moment. [Read More]

Article The Platypus Review /20th Century Marx Marxism The Platypus Review Theodor W. Adorno Walter Benjamin Authoritarianism Authoritarian Personality

Introduction to "Remarks on the Authoritarian Personality"

November 8, 2016 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO CLAIM that a person, social group, or historical moment is authoritarian by varying degrees? In what way can the emergence of modern authoritarianism be accounted for and how would it be overcome? These were central questions in the landmark 1950 study The Authoritarian Personality (AP), coauthored by T.W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel J. Levinson, and R. Nevitt Sanford.1 AP emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War, a time when finding answers to the rise of fascism was a desideratum for intellectuals and political figures. [Read More]

Theodor W. Adorno Authoritarianism Authoritarian Personality

2001

The Decline of the Left in the 20th Century: Toward a Theory of Historical Regression

November 18, 2009 | The Platypus Affiliated Society • Other languages: Ελληνικά, Deutsch

ON APRIL 18, 2009, the Platypus Affiliated Society conducted the following panel discussion at the Left Forum Conference at Pace University in New York City. The panel was organized around four significant moments in the progressive separation of theory and practice over the course of the 20th century: 2001 (Spencer A. Leonard), 1968 (Atiya Khan), 1933 (Richard Rubin), and 1917 (Chris Cutrone). The following is an edited transcript of the 2001 presentation by Spencer A. [Read More]

Afghanistan Fred Halliday Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Iran Iranian Revolution Michel Foucault Moishe Postone New Left Stalinism Left Forum Theodor W. Adorno

1968

The Decline of the Left in the 20th Century: Toward a Theory of Historical Regression

November 18, 2009 | The Platypus Affiliated Society • Other languages: Ελληνικά, Deutsch

ON APRIL 18, 2009, the Platypus Affiliated Society conducted the following panel discussion at the Left Forum Conference at Pace University in New York City. The panel was organized around four significant moments in the progressive separation of theory and practice over the course of the 20th century: 2001 (Spencer A. Leonard), 1968 (Atiya Khan), 1933 (Richard Rubin), and 1917 (Chris Cutrone). The following is an edited transcript of the 1968 presentation by Atiya Khan. [Read More]

Left Forum Theodor W. Adorno

The Decline of the Left in the 20th Century: Toward a Theory of Historical Regression

Introduction

November 18, 2009 | The Platypus Affiliated Society • Other languages: Ελληνικά, Deutsch

ON APRIL 18, 2009, the Platypus Affiliated Society conducted the following panel discussion at the Left Forum Conference at Pace University in New York City. The panel was organized around four significant moments in the progressive separation of theory and practice over the course of the 20th century: 2001 (Spencer A. Leonard), 1968 (Atiya Khan), 1933 (Richard Rubin), and 1917 (Chris Cutrone). The following is an edited transcript of the introduction to the panel by Benjamin Blumberg. [Read More]

Benjamin Blumberg International Convention Left Forum Theodor W. Adorno