The Frankfurt School of Critical Social Theory was originally established in Germany in 1923 as the

Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. Initially funded by Felix Weil, a young and financially well-off Marxist
thinker, the goal of the institute was to bring together different strands of Marxist thinking into one
interdisciplinary research center. Over the course of the 1920s and 1930s, the institute attracted some of most
important Marxist scholars of the time
The thinking of the Frankfurt School was heavily shaped by three key historical events: (1) the failure of the
working-class revolution that Marx had predicted in Western Europe, (2) the rise of Nazism and (3) the
expansion of capitalism into a new, mass form of production and consumption, often referred to as Fordism
after the assembly line production practices of Henry Fords automotive company
, the theorists of the Frankfurt School began to redevelop Marxist thought to help them make sense of these new
cultural conditions.
When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the founders of the school moved the institute first to Geneva and
then to New York City in 1935. Over the next 30 years, the theorists of the Frankfurt School developed some of
most provocative theories of modern society. Inspired by the idea that social theory should be a critical
enterprise aimed at the emancipation of society and individuals from harmful social structures, the Frankfurt
School developed thoroughgoing critiques of not only capitalism, but of instrumental rationality, the culture
industry, and the failed promises of Western modernity and Enlightenment thought.
In 1953, the Institute for Social Research was re-established in Frankfurt where it still functions today. While
some of the schools prominent theorists returned to Germany during this time, several others remained in the
United States.
Max Horkheimer
Horkheimer was one of the first and most important scholars associated with the Institute for Social Research,
being appointed director of the school in 1930 and remaining in that position until his retirement in the late
1950s. Horkheimer first developed the concept of critical theory in his 1937 book, Traditional and Critical
Theory. Horkheimer argued that while traditional theory attempted to remain in the purely objective,
observational mode of neutrally describing the laws of social life, critical theory sought to self-critically
examine and expose the structures of society for the purposes of human emancipation. The term critical
theory came to characterize the thought of the entire Frankfurt School.
Horkheimer is perhaps best known for his book The Dialectic of Enlightenment, which he co-authored with
Theodor Adorno. Horkheimer and Adorno offer a penetrating critique of modernity, arguing that while the
Enlightenment promised the liberation of humanity through reason, modern life is characterized by domination.
In this book, the authors explain the historical sources of modern forms of domination and attempt to resuscitate
the liberating promises of Enlightenment thought.
According to him Marx had the ideal society of free human beings. He believed that this capitalist society
would necessarily have to be overcome by the solidarity spelled by the increasing immiseration of the working
class. This idea is wrong. This society in which we live does not immiserate the workers but help them to build
a better life and apart from that, Marx did not see that freedom and justice are dialectical concepts, the more
freedom the less justice and the more justice the less freedom. The critical theory which Horkheimer conceived
is based on the idea that one cannot determine what is good, what good, a free society would look like from
within the society which we now live in we lack the means. But in our work we can bring up the negative
aspects of this society which we want to change
Theodor W. Adorno
Adorno became director of the Institute for Social Research in 1958, after Horkheimers retirement. Along with
co-authoring The Dialectic of Enlightenment, Adorno wrote several other influential books, including The
Authoritarian Personality and Minima Moralia. The Authoritarian Personality was Adornos attempt to
understand what kinds of character traits could lead to the fascist tendencies which characterized German
Nazism. In the book, Adorno developed a Freudian social-psychological model that identified nine personality
traits he argued were associated with fascist thought and behavior. Minima Moralia is Adornos critique of the

amoral character of modern society, arguing through a short series of self-reflective essays that the ethical
pursuit of living a good life is no longer possible under modern social conditions.
Herbert Marcuse
Perhaps the most politically radical member of the Frankfurt School, Herbert Marcuse was often referred to as
the Father of the New Left because of the influence his ideas held among leftist political activists of the 1960s
and 1970s. Two of Marcuses most prominent works are Eros and Civilization and One-Dimensional Man. In
Eros and Civilization, Marcuse synthesizes the ideas of Marx and Sigmund Freud to argue that advanced
industrial society suppresses humanitys erotic instincts and prevents us from living in a non-repressive social
order. One-Dimensional Man is Marcuses scathing indictment of the advanced industrial societies of the
modern West. Here he famously argues that modern persons are becoming almost thoroughly controlled by the
rationalizing forces of mass media, advertising, science, and technology, and, as a result, becoming increasingly
one dimensional in their thoughts and activities He is particularly critical of consumerism, which he argues
contributes to the creation of false needs and the perpetuation of social control.
REPORT:
The Frankfurt school criticized Weber's argument that sociology could be both value-relative and
value-free; there are two main reasons for the Critical Theorist's rejection of positivism.
Opinions are not necessarily facts:
Critical theorists reject the idea that empirical data are the key element of science. What were
presented as social science were in essence large amounts of opinion polls. Social surveys, no
doubt technically correct in relation to sampling and the wording of questions simply elicited
people's opinions on a wide range of subjects. Pollack rejected the idea that these findings could
be seen as scientific: "The concept of opinion held by current opinion... operates with a
subjective concept of truth, without even a glance at the problem of the objective. Objectivity on
which it prides itself so much, is nothing but a generality abstracted from subjectivities of this
kind-the common denominator of opinions, as it were, unrelated to their objective validity."
Pollack meant, consider a hypothetical finding of a social survey. If it asked people whether the
earth was flat and found that 70% did believe that the earth was flat, what could one conclude?
Does this present objective demonstration that the subjective beliefs of the most people are
wrong?
There is no value-free methodology:
Critical theorists also reject the fact/ value distinction leading to the notion that sociology should
be value-free. The Frankfurt school argued that it is impossible to be value-neutral, since this
implies that social scientists cannot really have any say in the way society develops. Weber
argued that sociology could not arbitrate over questions of ethical, moral and political choices
and he makes a clear distinction between science and politics. However the Frankfurt school
argued that this meant that sociology would for example have nothing to say about the advent of
hitler to power since that was a political rather than a scientific choice. In other words Weber's
distinction actually does not work in practice.