Critical theory was one of the most vigorous and insightful intellectual traditions of the twentieth-century. At its core was a critique of culture and consciousness that stemmed from an insight into the nature of modern rationality, economic life, and social organization. Yet, Michael Thompson argues in this highly original book that the tradition has been domesticated - it no longer offers a philosophically convincing nor politically viable form of social critique.Thompson demonstrates that the field has surrendered its concerns with domination, alienation, and the pathologies of capitalist modernity and shifted its focus toward neo-Idealist themes. This new critical theory has turned its back on the insights of the classical critical theorists. Thompson traces how this shift occurred and how we can reclaim a genuinely critical critical theory. He goes on to defend the different aspects of critical theory that can be used to reformulate a social critique, one that must be brought into dialogue with contemporary political, social and moral philosophy and theory in a way that protects the lasting and crucial legacy of critical theory as a political project.

Michael J. Thompson is Professor of Political Science at William Paterson University. He is the author ofRadical Intellectuals and the Subversion of Progressive Politics (2015) and the editor ofThe Palgrave Handbook of Critical Theory (2017) andHegel's Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Politics (2018).

Preface / Introduction: How Critical Theory was Domesticated /Part I: The Present State of Critical Theory /1. The Rise of Neo-Idealist Critical Theory / 2. One-Dimensional Rationality and the Limits of Pragmatist Reason / 3. The Insufficiency of Recognition: A Critique of Axel Honneths Concept of Critical Theory /Part II: Reconstructing the Logic of Critical Social Theory /4. Structure and Consciousness: Reconsidering the Base-Superstructure Hypothesis / 5. System and Function: The Normative Basis of Social Power / 6. Fact and Value: The Epistemological Framework of Critical Theory /Part III: Renewing Critical Philosophy /7. Against the Postmetaphysical Turn: Toward a Critical Social Ontology / Bibliography / Index