The Critical Humanism of the Frankfurt School as Social Critique

Using the example of various representatives of the Frankfurt School, the book works out a normative orientation that is to be understood here as “Critical Humanism”. The author argues that Critical Humanism is not a contemplative appropriation of a humanistic culture, but a political practice of critical social research.

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This book pretends to extract a kind of Critical Humanism from the works of prominent members of the Frankfurt School. Oliver Kozlarek argues that what is compelling about this kind of restitution of humanism is the fact that it sought to be understood not as a conceptual-theoretical construction, but as a practice of critical social and cultural research. This means that it does not orient itself to an ideal image of the human being, but to making inhuman conditions of our current societies visible. It is above all in this sense that humanism is no longer understood in a Humboldtian, educational sense. Rather, it is about using critical social research as a political practice.