![Sample our Social Sciences journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110822/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Social-Sciences.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
I emphasize how The Return of Work in Critical Theory: Self, Society, Politics deals with details on labor problems ordinarily not handled by modern day critical theory, whereas Experience: New Foundations for the Human Sciences to a large extent justifies the use of a phenomenological approach to psychology with applications for theory building in general, and Authoritarianism: Three Inquiries in Critical Theory provides commentary on the concept of authoritarianism that has ramifications for use of critical theory for understanding political problems. I emphasize the distinction between naturalism of the sort practiced in the physical sciences and neo-Kantian historicism that reflects religious ideals of morality even if in secular form. Thus, I distinguish between motive (can be driven by psychological impulse, but often comes originally from the acceptance of cultural meaning), and mechanism that has explanatory value because of acceptance of the reality of physical causality, usually the result of social structure acting as a controlling mechanism. Similar distinctions are made by Scott Lash, for the purpose of distinguishing between deductive and inductive reasoning. The book on authoritarianism is discussed with emphasis on how their conceptualization fits neither deductive nor inductive conceptualizations entirely. I conclude with a commonsense discussion of these same topics.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 As an introduction to the first two generations of critical theory, I recommend David Held, Introduction to Critical Theory.
2 For those that are interested, two books that actually refer to critical social theory are Browne, Critical Social Theory and Calhoun, Critical Social Theory.
3 Dejours, et al., The Return of Work in Critical Theory, 65.
4 Ibid., 112.
5 Lichbach, Is Rational Choice All, 19.
6 Lash, Experience: New Foundations, 27.
7 Ibid., 52.
8 Ibid., 67.
9 Brown, Gordon, and Pensky, Authoritarianism: Three Inquiries, 15–16.
10 If you are interested in more detail on social solidarity within an economic context that supplements her analysis, Michael Thompson in a chapter on “Technological Democracy” in Engelstad and Osterud, Power and Democracy: Critical Interventions distinguishes between social solidarity based on fatalism where goods are provided by “clubs” that keep out outsiders who would otherwise be free riders, hierarchy where it is difficult to keep out free riders other than through hierarchical controls of a rather bureaucratic sort, individualism that is the prime environment for the entrepreneur, and egalitarianism, where there is a common pool of goods. Engelstad and Osterud, Power and Democracy, 188.
11 Brown, Gordon, and Pensky: Authoritarianism: Three Inquiries, 33.
12 Ibid., 35.
13 Ibid., 46.
14 Ibid., 47.
15 Ibid., 65.
16 Ibid., 65–66.
17 Ibid., 69.
18 Ibid., 97–98.
19 Ibid., 101.
20 Ibid., 105.
21 Ibid., 111.
22 Ibid., 117.
23 Lash, Experience: New Foundations, 137.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jerome Braun
Jerome Braun was a Research Student in Industrial Relations at the London School of Economics, which resulted in his book The Humanized Workplace: A Psychological, Historical, and Practical Perspective (Praeger, 1995). His most recent book is Democratic Culture and Moral Character: A Study in Culture and Personality (Springer, 2013). He has been a Visiting Scholar at Loyola University, Chicago, Dept. of Sociology since 2014.