“Critique” immanent in “practice”: New Frankfurt School and American pragmatism

Abstract

As a result of a new understanding of the relation between theory and practice, the New Frankfurt School,  with J?rgen Habermas as its major representative, highly values the philosophical tradition of American pragmatism, in contrast to the first generation Critical Theorists represented by Max Horkheimer. In Habermas, the idea of critique  is, both substantially and methodologically, closely connected with the idea of praxis  in the following senses: communicative action, rational argumentation, public discussion and political culture. Critique  is thus found to be immanent in praxis ; or, a la Horkheimer, pragmatism turns out to be a critical philosophical analysis  without falling back upon objective reason and mythology.