The École of Frankfurt is the name given, in the Années 1960, with a group of German intellectuals brought together around the founded Research institute social in 1923 and supported by the patron Felix Weil. It is currently directed by the philosopher Axel Honneth.

Descriptions

Known for its famous researchers, among whom one counts in particular Theodor W. Adorno, max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse and Walter Benjamin, its preliminary draft was to achieve a critical analysis of the Social sciences from the point of view néo-Marxist. The school of Frankfurt is in particular known to be leaning on the appearance of the Mass culture in the modern societies, of which it will develop a criticism using the concept of “culture industry”. This school considers the concepts of critical like:

• within the meaning of the Lights: reason to decipher the texts,
• within the meaning of German idealistic philosophy: to see Kant (epistemology),
• with the Marxist direction : it is necessary to become aware of the situation to release itself some.

On arrival of the Nazi party to the capacity in 1933, the Institute is closed and its members are constrained with the exile. Adorno, Horkheimer and Marcuse leave to the the United States. Herbert Marcuse will teach in Berkeley, in California. After a stopover in Geneva, the Institute is transferred to New York, where it will remain until 1950, date of its return to Frankfurt. Jürgen Habermas, by a reinvestment of the theory criticizes , will contribute to found what one will name the “Second generation of the School of Frankfurt”. If it has only thin historical links with the school of Frankfurt, its reappropriation of the theory criticizes made of him not only the heir to Horkheimer but also an innovator likely to release the theory criticizes “obstacles of which it had not known itself déprendre”.

Principal members of the School of Frankfurt

• max Horkheimer
• Theodor W. Adorno
• Herbert Marcuse
• Walter Benjamin
• Leo Lowenthal
• Siegfried Kracauer
• Erich Fromm
• Franz Leopold Neumann
• Jürgen Habermas
• Axel Honneth