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Descent of the Dialectic: Phronetic Criticism in an Age of Nihilism
This book reconstructs the concept and practice of dialectics as a means of grounding a critical theory of society. At the center of this project is the thesis of phronetic criticism or a form of reason that is able to synthesize human value with objective rationality.

This book argues that defects in modern forms of social reason are the result of the powers of social structure and the norms and purposes they embody. Increasingly, modern societies are driven not by substantive values concerning human good but by the technical imperatives of economic management, leading to a cultural condition of nihilism that has eroded dialectical consciousness. The first half of the book demonstrates the various ways that social power erodes and undermines critical-rational forms of consciousness. The second part of the book constructs an alternative basis for critical reason by showing how it requires seeing human value as essentially ontological: that is, constituted by objective forms of sociality that either promote human freedom or pervert our capacities and drive toward pathological forms of life. The philosophical claim is that a critical theory of ethics must be rooted in these concrete forms of life and that this will serve as a critical vantage point for critical political judgment and transformational praxis.

Descent of the Dialectic will be of interest to researchers working in philosophy, political theory, social theory, and critical theory.

1144885769
Descent of the Dialectic: Phronetic Criticism in an Age of Nihilism
This book reconstructs the concept and practice of dialectics as a means of grounding a critical theory of society. At the center of this project is the thesis of phronetic criticism or a form of reason that is able to synthesize human value with objective rationality.

This book argues that defects in modern forms of social reason are the result of the powers of social structure and the norms and purposes they embody. Increasingly, modern societies are driven not by substantive values concerning human good but by the technical imperatives of economic management, leading to a cultural condition of nihilism that has eroded dialectical consciousness. The first half of the book demonstrates the various ways that social power erodes and undermines critical-rational forms of consciousness. The second part of the book constructs an alternative basis for critical reason by showing how it requires seeing human value as essentially ontological: that is, constituted by objective forms of sociality that either promote human freedom or pervert our capacities and drive toward pathological forms of life. The philosophical claim is that a critical theory of ethics must be rooted in these concrete forms of life and that this will serve as a critical vantage point for critical political judgment and transformational praxis.

Descent of the Dialectic will be of interest to researchers working in philosophy, political theory, social theory, and critical theory.

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Descent of the Dialectic: Phronetic Criticism in an Age of Nihilism

Descent of the Dialectic: Phronetic Criticism in an Age of Nihilism

by Michael J. Thompson
Descent of the Dialectic: Phronetic Criticism in an Age of Nihilism
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Descent of the Dialectic: Phronetic Criticism in an Age of Nihilism

Descent of the Dialectic: Phronetic Criticism in an Age of Nihilism

by Michael J. Thompson

Overview

This book reconstructs the concept and practice of dialectics as a means of grounding a critical theory of society. At the center of this project is the thesis of phronetic criticism or a form of reason that is able to synthesize human value with objective rationality.

This book argues that defects in modern forms of social reason are the result of the powers of social structure and the norms and purposes they embody. Increasingly, modern societies are driven not by substantive values concerning human good but by the technical imperatives of economic management, leading to a cultural condition of nihilism that has eroded dialectical consciousness. The first half of the book demonstrates the various ways that social power erodes and undermines critical-rational forms of consciousness. The second part of the book constructs an alternative basis for critical reason by showing how it requires seeing human value as essentially ontological: that is, constituted by objective forms of sociality that either promote human freedom or pervert our capacities and drive toward pathological forms of life. The philosophical claim is that a critical theory of ethics must be rooted in these concrete forms of life and that this will serve as a critical vantage point for critical political judgment and transformational praxis.

Descent of the Dialectic will be of interest to researchers working in philosophy, political theory, social theory, and critical theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781032011998
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 08/01/2024
Series: Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy
Pages: 248
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael J. Thompson is Professor of Political Theory at William Paterson University and a psychoanalyst in New York City. His recent books include The Domestication of Critical Theory, The Specter of Babel: A Reconstruction of Political Judgment, and Twilight of the Self: The Decline of the Individual in Late Capitalism.

Table of Contents

Preface  Introduction  Part 1: Nihilism and the Descent of Dialectics  1. On Dialectical Reason and its Descent  2. Reification as an Ontological Concept  3. Value Irrationality and the Failures of Deliberative Democracy  4. On the Concept of Social Pathology  Part 2: Dialectics, Ontology and Phronetic Criticism  5. Negation without Ontology: Rethinking Adorno’s Late Philosophy  6. Ontologizing the Dialectic: Lukács on the Foundations for a Marxian Ethics  7. Toward an Ontology of Social Relations  8. Critical Social Ontology and the Practice of Phronetic Criticism

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