Alienation and Autonomy: Critical Theory after the Critique of Instrumental Reason Restricted; Files Only
Walsh, Jason (Spring 2024)
Abstract
This dissertation undertakes a study of the tradition of critical theory known as the Frankfurt School, arguing that its major representatives including Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Jürgen Habermas share a central misunderstanding about the empirical and normative logic of capitalism. In the first half of the project, I trace this misunderstanding to the Frankfurt School’s collective adoption of the “critique of instrumental reason” and I argue that this is responsible for two of critical theory’s often noted and recently debated failures: its Eurocentrism and its tendency to devolve into freestanding normative theory. I claim that in order for critical theory to overcome these limitations, it must leave behind the critique of instrumental reason. In the second half of the project, I elaborate a critical theoretical perspective on both the empirical and normative logic of capitalism that does not rely on the critique of instrumental reason. I combine an empirical perspective drawn from alternative critical theories of capitalism with a normative position developed from the philosophy of the life sciences. I use this perspective to rethink several central categories of critical theory, primarily alienation and autonomy. I show that advancing beyond the critique of instrumental reason allows critical theory to renew its original task, what Marx called “the self-clarification of the struggles and wishes of the age.”
Table of Contents
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………… 1
Chapter One: What is the critique of instrumental reason? ……………………………………. 12
1. A prehistory of the critique of instrumental reason ……………………………………. 16
2. Horkheimer and Adorno’s critique of modernity ……………………………………… 26
3. Habermas and the normative turn ……………………………………………………… 39
Chapter Two: Is instrumental reason the logic of capitalism? …………………………………. 52
The disappearance of capitalism and the domestication of critical theory …………….. 54 The critique of instrumental reason as a critique of political economy ………………... 56 Is instrumental reason the logic of capitalism? ………………………………………… 60
Chapter Three: Whose linguistics? Which normativity? ………………………………………. 74
1. The methodological turn and the normativity of critique ……………………………… 75
2. What counts as a good reason? ………………………………………………………… 81
3. Towards a new normative horizon ……………………………………………………. 102
Chapter Four: Alienation: From work to non-work …………………………………………... 110
The Frankfurt School and alienation …………………………………………………. 112 Redescribing alienation: From the concrete to the abstract …………………………... 124Interlude: Alienation versus ongoing primitive accumulation ………………………... 133
Redescribing alienation: From the abstract to the concrete …………………………... 137
Chapter Five: Autonomy and beyond…...……………………………………………………. 147
1. Naturalizing normativity and autonomy ……………………………………………… 150
2. Capitalism as a form of power ………………………………………………………... 154
3. Decentering wage labor ………………………………………………………………. 158
4. Crises of non-reproduction …………………………………………………………… 162
About this Dissertation
- Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.
School | |
---|---|
Department | |
Degree | |
Submission | |
Language |
|
Research Field | |
Keyword | |
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor | |
Committee Members |

Primary PDF
Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
---|---|---|---|
![]() |
File download under embargo until 22 May 2026 | 2024-04-04 11:22:15 -0400 | File download under embargo until 22 May 2026 |
Supplemental Files
Thumbnail | Title | Date Uploaded | Actions |
---|