xxii The Dialectical imagination NOTES I. It turns out that even royalty was curious. When he was a student at Cambridge Prince Charles was told to read Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man by his tutor Peter Lazlett. According to one account, "Charles told him he read itwith father'while on a royal tour of Australia, They inspected troops during the day and read about bourgeois ystification in the evening,,. Charles did not comment on what he had learned.' Bryan Appleyard, " King of a Fragile New Europe?, The Sunday Times, London, July 22,199p.6 2. Friedrich Pollock to Martin Jay, Montagnola, May 13, I970 3. Dick Howard and Karl E. Klare, eds, The Unknown Dimension: European Marxism Since Lenin(New York, 1972) 4. At the fifth annual Socialist Scholar's Conference in September, 1969, I gave a alk entitled "The Metapolitics of Utopianism, which was published, under a variety of titles chosen by their editors, in Radical America, 4, 3(April, I97o): Dissent, 17,4 July-August, 197o): George Fischer, ed, The Revival of American Socialism: Se lected Papers of the Socialist Scholars Conference(New York, I971). It was repub. lished in my collection Permanent Exiles: Es says on the intellectual Migration From Germany to America(New York, 1986). In it, I criticized Marcuse's totalizing notion of the"Great Refusal"as a kind of aesthetic metapolitics that underestimated the im portance of pluralism 5. It was written before I joined Lowenthal on the Berkeley faculty and was privi leged to develop a warm and close friendship with him. For my reflections on his legacy, see my introduction to the Festschrift for his both birthday in Telos, 45( Fall, I980)and"Leo Lowenthal: In Memoriam. "Telos, 93(Fall, 1993): 6. They are, however, by no means entirely neglected. See, for example, the re- cent collections Erich Fromm und die Frankfurter Schule, eds, Michael Kessler and Rainer Funk (Tubingen, 1992): On Max Horkheimer: New Perspectives, eds Seyla Benhabib, Wolfgang BonB, and John McCole( Cambridge, Mass, 1993): Marcuse From the New Left to the Next Left, eds John Bokina and Timothy J Lukes(Kansas 7. See, in particular, William E Scheuerman, Between the Norm and the Exce tion: The Frankfurt School and the Rule of Law(Cambridge, Mass, 1994) about Schmitt's relations to Critical Theory was launched by Ellen Kennedy "Carl Schmitt and the Frankfurt School, "and the responses by Martin Jay, ciling the Irreconcilable? A Rejoinder to Kennedy, " Alfons Sollner, "Beyond Carl Schmitt: Political Theory in the Frankfurt School, "and Ulrich K. Preuss, " The Cri- tique of German Liberalism: A Reply to Kennedy, "all in Telos, 71 (Spring, 1987) For her reply, see Ellen Kennedy. "Carl Schmitt and the Frankfurt School, "Telos, 73 (Fal.9g87) teinamerika(Cologne, 1994). In Australia, although inspired by th School members who emigrated there in the 1970s, the joumal Thesis shows a strong interest in the legacy of Critical Theory. In Japan, the recently launched joumal Ba-Topos plays a similar role 9. David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change(Oxford, 1989). ro. Ibid p. 159. Offe's argument can be found in his Disorganized capit Contemporary Transformations of Work and Politics, ed. John Keane(Caml Mass, I985)
Preface to the 1996 Edition xxii II. For a global critique, see Moishe Postone, Time, Labor, and Social domina- tion:A Reinterpretation of Marr's Critical Theory(Cambridge, 1993), chapter 3. 12. For a general survey of the recent reception of Critical Theory and its com- plex relations to other schools of thought, see Peter Uwe Hohendahl, Reappraisals Shifting Alignments in Postwar Critical Theory(Ithaca, 1991). For an analysis that situates the work of Benjamin and Adorno in the now highly contested history of aesthetics, see Terry Eagleton, The Ideology of the Aesthetic (Cambridge, Mass For my own attempt to discuss his position, see the essays"Habermas and rnism"and"Habermas and Postmodernism. "in Fin-de- Siecle Socialism and Other Essays(New York, 1988 ainst Postmodemism, " Interview with Emilio Galli Zu- garo, in An Unmastered Past: The Autobiographical Reflections of Leo Lowenthal, ed, Martin Jay(Berkeley, 1987), p. 262. For more on Lowenthals resistance to post modemism, see my Erfahrungen und/oder Experimentieren: LOwenthal und die Herausfordung der Postmodeme, in Geschichte Denken: Ein Notizbuch far Leo Lowenthal ed Frithjof Hager(Leipzig, 1992). 15. Fredric Jameson, Postmodemism: Or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Durham, 1991), p.17. 16. For a lively debate over these issues, see David Couzens Hoy and Thomas McCarthy, Critical Theory(Cambridge, Mass 1994) For discussions of these issues, see the essays in Andrew Be Problems of Modernity: Adorno and Benjamin(London, 1989), and Harry Ku man and Hent de vries, eds, Enlightenments: Encounters between Critical Theory and Contemporary French Thought(Kampen, The Netherlands, 1993) 18. Habermass most sustained critique of Dialectic of Enlighterment came in The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures, trans. Frederick Lawrence (Cambridge, Mass, 1987). In America, it is perhaps in the work of Richard Wolin that Habermas's critique of Dialectic of Enlightenment and the"Nietzschean, "proto- poststructuralist moment in Critical Theory has been most elaborated. See his The Terms of Cultural Criticism: The Frankfurt School, Existentialism, Poststructuralism (New York, 1992). A vigorous defense of Adorno against Habermas has been waged by the English philosopher J M. Bernstein. See his The Fate of Art: Aesthetic Alien- ation from Kant to Derrida and Adomo(University Park, Pa, 1992)and Recovering Ethical Life: Jurgen Habermas and the Future of Critical Theory(London, 1995) 19. For a probing comparison, see Bernstein, The Fate of Art. 20. On the question of mimesis, see my essay, "Mimesis und Mimetology: Adorno und Lacoue-Labarthe, "in Gertrud Koch, ed, Auge und Affekr: Wahrnehmung und In teraktion(Frankfurt, 1995). For the comparison with Lacan, see Peter Dews, The Logics of Disintegration: Post-Structuralist Thought and the Claims of Critical The ory ( London, 1987) for a recent reappraisal, see Joel Whitebook, Perversion and Utopia: A Study in Psychoanalysis and Critical Theory(Cambridge, Mass. 1995) 21. See, for example, Paul Breines, " Revisiting Marcuse with Foucault: An Essay on Liberation meets The History of Sexuality"in Marcuse, eds, Bokina and Lukes Several of the other essays in this collection attempt to resituate Marcuse in the de bate over postmodernism. 22. Foucault, "Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marcuse: Who is a 'Negator of His- tory?, "Remarks on Marx: Conversations with Duccio Trombadori, trans. R James Goldstein and James Cascaito(New York, 1991), p 119-120. Foucault once told the author that the French translation of The Dialectical imagination in 1977 first alerted him to the similarities. Comparing Foucault and the Frankfurt School has become a
xxiv The Dialectical imagination frequent pastime: see, for example, Axel Honneth ver: Reflective Stages in a Critical Social Theory, trans. Kenneth Ba Mass, 1991) nd Michael Kelley, ed, Critique and Power: Recast Habermas De bate(Cambridge, Mass, 1994) 23. See, for example, the essays in Benyjamin's Ground: New Readings of Walter enjamin, ed, Rainer Nagele( Detroit, 1988) 24. Derrida, "Force of Law: The 'Mystical Foundation of Authority, "in Decon struction and the Possibility of Justice, ed. Drucilla Comell et al, (New York, 1992). 25. See, for example, Margaret Cohen, Profane IlLumination: Walter Benjamin and the Paris of the Surrealist Revolution( Berkeley, 1993) 26. Richard J. Bemstein, The New Constellation: The Ethical/political He onions of Modernity/Postmodernity(Cambridge, 1991) 27. Jean-Francois Lyotard, "A Svelte Appendix to the Postmodern Question, " in Political Writings, trans. Bill Readings and Kevin Paul (Minneapolis, 1993), P. 28 28. Fredric Jameson, Late Marxism: Adorno, Or The Persistence of the Dialectic ( New York, 199o), Pp 249-252. 29. For my own thoughts on this issue, see "Class Struggle in the Classroom? The Myth of American'Seminarmarxism', "Salmagundi, 85-86(Winter, Spring, 199o). It has also been argued by Stephen T. Leonard that despite everything, Critical Theory has managed to produce significant practical effects in areas such as critical peda gogy, feminism and liberation theology. See his Critical Theory in Political Practice (Princeton, 1990). See also the earlier collection, Critical Theory and Public Life. ed, john Forester(Cambridge, Mass, 1985) 30. "Urban Flights: The Institute of Social Research between Frankfurt and New York, "in Force Fields: Between Intellectual History and Cultural Critique(Berkeley, 993) t. 3I. Willem van Reijen and Gunzelin Schmid Noerr, eds, Grand Hotel Abgrund Ein Photobiographie der Kritischen Theorie(Hamburg, 1988) 32. Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History, Theories, and Political Significance, trans. Michael Robertson(Cambridge, Mass, 1994). 33. Adorno(Cambridge, Mass, 1984)sought to provide an overview of his ca reer Marxism and Totality: The Adventures of a Concept from Lukacs to Habermas Berkeley, 1984) attempted to situate Critical Theory s ruminations on the concept of totality in the longer history of Western Marxism as a whole. Permanent Exiles: Es- says on the Intellectual Migration from Germany to America(New York, 1985)col lected my scattered essays on aspects of the Institut's history, as well as on other emigres such as Siegfried Kracauer. An Unmastered Past: The Autobiographical Re- flections of Leo Lowenthal(Berkeley, 1987)was an edition of texts and interv
Foreword December, 1971 Dear Mr. Jay, I have been asked to write a foreword to your book on the history of the Frankfurt Institute of Social Research. Reading your interest ng work does not permit me to refuse this request; however, the con- dition of my health limits me to the short letter form, which should now serve as a foreword. First, my thanks are due you for the care which is demonstrated through all the chapters of your work. Mucl will be preserved which would be forgotten without your description The work to which the Institute devoted itself before its migra tion from Germany -one thinks of Friedrich Pollock's book The Experiments in Economic Planning in the Soviet Union,[ or the subsequently published collective work, Authority and Family meant something new in comparison to the then official educa- ional system. It meant the ability to pursue research for which a uni- versity still offered no opportunity. The enterprise succeeded only because, thanks to the support of Hermann Weil and the interven tion of his son, Felix, a group of men, interested in social theory and from different scholarly backgrounds, came together with the belief that formulating the negative in the epoch of transition was more meaningful than academic careers. What united them was the criti- cal approach to existing society Already near the end of the twenties, certainly by the beginning of the thirties, we were convinced of the probability of a National So- cialist victory, as well as of the fact that it could be met only through revolutionary actions. That it needed a world war we did not yet en visage at that time. We thought of an uprising in our own country and because of that, Marxism won its decisive meaning for our thought. After our emigration to America via Geneva, the Marxist interpretation of social events remained, to be sure, dominant, which did not mean in any way, however, that a dogmatic materialism had
xxvi Dialectical imagination become the decisive theme of our position. Reflecting on political systems taught us rather that it was necessary, as Adorno has ex pressed it, "not to think of claims to the Absolute as certain and yet, not to deduct anything from the appeal to the emphatic concept of the truth 3 The appeal to an entirely other (ein ganz Anderes) than this world ad primarily a social-philosophical impetus It led finally to a more positive evaluation of certain metaphysical trends, because the em pirical"whole is the untrue"(Adorno). The hope that earthly horror does not possess the last word is, to be sure, a non-scientific wish Those who were once associated with the Institute, as far as they are still alive, will certainly be thankful to you for recognizing in your book a history of their own ideas. I feel obliged also in the name of the dead, such as Fred Pollock, Theodor w. Adorno wal- ter Benjamin, Franz Neumann, and Otto Kirchheimer, to express to you,dear Mr. Jay, acknowledgment and gratitude for your work. Cordially, MAX HORKHEIMER Montagnola, Switzerland