Kingston Philosophy Café

Part of the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival

A 1 hour talk by Professor Peter Dews on The Frankfurt School.

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Peter Dews is an emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Essex University and since the publication of The Logics of Disintegration in the early 80’s he has become one the the country’s leading interpreters of European Philosophy. He has taught all round the world and has continued to write extensively on many of the seminal figures of continental philosophy including Foucault, Derrida and Habermas. He has recently published a ground breaking study of Fredrich Schelling.

This year is the centenary of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, which was founded in 1923. The Institute was the first Marxist research centre attached to a German university, made possible by the largesse of a former student. The influential thinkers associated with it have come to be known as the “Frankfurt School”. These thinkers include Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and Herbert Marcuse, in the first generation, and – most famously – Jürgen Habermas, in the second generation. The early Frankfurt School members were highly critical of capitalism, but also rejected orthodox Marxism-Leninism. Their aim was to understand the mechanisms through which capitalism, as a form of life, permeates culture, human interactions, and even the inner world of the psyche. And they also rang alarm bells, very early on, regarding the ruthless technological exploitation of nature. In some respects, then, their ideas could be seen as more relevant than ever. In this talk I’ll discuss what is outdated and what is still powerful in the work of the Frankfurt School, in our world of all-pervasive social media and the climate crisis. I’ll also consider to what extent influential recent thinkers such as Mark Fisher (author of Capitalist Realism) can be seen as developing Frankfurt School themes.