Karl Marx wk7 reading
Marx's belief on religion
"Religion is the opiate of the masses"
World events that contributed to the Frankfurt school's gradual shift away from its Marxist orientation
1) Hitler's takeover of the Weimar Republic in 1933, put an end to the socialist party in Germany and to the hope for a socialist revolution. 2) The Non-Aggression Pact of August 22, 1939, between Hitler and Stalin marked the end of Marxist ideology in Russian Communism.
Leading figures of modern Critical theory
1)Jurgen Habermas 2) Al-brecht Wellmer
Typical scale items on the five-point Likert-type (strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, strongly disagree) E and F scales
1)One trouble with Jewish businessmen is that they stick together and prevent other people from having a fair chance in competition (E). 2) The worst danger to real Americanism during the last 50 years has come from foreign ideas and agitators (E). 3) Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn (F). 4)An insult to our honor should always be punished (F).
Centers of Critical scholarship in the U.S.
1)University of Illinois 2) University of Iowa 3) University of California at San Diego
Timeline of Karl Marx
1818-Born in Trier, Germany. 1835- Enrolls in the University of Berlin, reading law, history, and philosophy. Becomes a Hegelian idealist. 1841-Earns doctorate in philosophy from the University of Jena. 1842- Is influenced by the humanist philosophy of Ludwig Feurbach. Becomes editor of the Rheinische Zeitung. 1843-Writes critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. 1844-Meets Friedrich Engels. Writes The Paris Manuscripts. 1845-Is expelled from France. Writes Theses on Feuerbach. 1846-Sets up the Communist Correspondence theory. 1847-Lectures to German worker's society. Launch of the Communist League. 1848- Starts writing political pamphlets on The Class struggles in France. Publishes the Communist Manifesto. 1849- Moves to Cologne. Writes articles in the "Neue Rheinische Zeitung" 1850-Writes with Engels the "Address to the Communist League." 1853-Writes "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte." 1864-Supports the launch of the International Workingmen's Association. 1867-Publication of Das Kapital 1869-Writes "A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy" 1872- Attends The Hague Congress of the First International. 1875-Writes "Critique of the Gotha Programme" 1883- Dies
Else Frenkel-Brunswik
A Central European who studied for her doctorate in psychology with Karl Buhler at the University of Vienna.
Nevitt Sanford
A psychologist at the University of California who studied anti-Semitism.
Henry Murray
A psychologist who introduced psychoanalysis at Harvard University.
Marxism
Also called historical materialism, is the belief that material conditions like economic forces determine social change in society.
The Critical School
Also known as the Frankfurt School and as the Institute for Social Research, is an intellectual combining of Marxist and Freudian theories. Established in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1923.
Marxist theory
An imaginitive attempt to explain social change in comtemporary society.
Rokeach's dogmatism scale
An intervening variable determining the degree to which individuals were affected by a communication message in a persuasion experiment.
Authoritarian
Anti-Semitism, ethnocentrism, and fascism together were parts of a general character structure called "authoritarian."
Max Horkheimer
Became the director of the Institute for Social Research in 1930. Earned his doctorate in philosophy with a dissertation on Kant. Taught philosophy at the University of Frankfurt.
The Authoritarianism Personality
Began in 1943, large-scale empirical study of prejudice in the United States. Represented a triangulation of survey, clinical, and projective methods, as well as a hybrid of pyschometric a psychoanalytic perspectives.
The Frankfurt School
Concentrated on Marx, Freud, and avant-garde art and literature.
The fundamental doctrine of the Frankfurt school
Consisted of critiquing: (1) positivism (the belief that real, "positive" facts can be obtained from observation and experiments), claiming that social science is a form of false consciousness, which "endorses the status quo under a misleading veil of value-neutrality", (2) Marxism for an insufficient emancipation from positivism and for thinking that "the proletariat will inevitably bring about a revolution that will eliminate alienation and dominance", (3) society for its irrationality in lulling individuals into a false acceptance of their conditions.
Karl Landauer
Directed an institute for Freudian psychoanalysis at the University of Frankfurt.
Theodor Adorno
Earned his doctorate in philosophy and studied music in Vienna as a member of Arnold Schoenberg's circle of avant-garde musicians. Described as "the most pyrotechnically highbrow and unintelligible of the Frankfurt school."
Herbert Marcuse
He became dissatisfied with Marxism and became neo-Freudian. He published "Eros and Civiliation," (1955)which built on Freud's concepts of the life instinct (Eros) and the death instinct (Thanatos) to set them in a socioeconomic context.
Friedrich Engels
Helped Marx financially and coauthored "The Communist Manifesto" with Marx in 1848 in Paris.
Key figures in the Frankfurt School
Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse, and Leo Lowenthal.
Marx's theoretical proposition
In any society unequal access to basic resources needed to sustain life invariably creates a culture that engenders significant social conflict of some type.
The post World War II Frankfurt school
Mainly criticized late capitalism for its manipulation of people's minds by mass media advertising.
List of authors who worked on The Authoritarian Personality Project
Nevitt Sanford, Daniel Levinson, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno.
Leo Lowenthal
Received Ph. D. Degree in philosophy, although he studied literature, history, and sociology.
Walter Benjamin
Received an excellent education and was a brilliant scholar. Had a lengthy association with the Institute for Social Research, publishing in their journal and receiving a stipend from the institutes endowment.
Eric Fromm
Received an intensive Jewish religious education. Studied philosophical anthropology, specializing in the study of religion. Earned his Ph. D in sociology from the University of Heidelberg at age 22.
Empirical scholars
See the media as able to help ameliorate social problems in society and as leading to incremental social change. Mainly concerned with the effects of the media on individual audience members, a micro view.
Fascism
The Frankfurt scholars adapted the Freudian criticism of civilization as a repression of human instincts, arguing that Fascist oppression was a function of the authoritarian personality.
Alienation
The degree to which individuals are dominated by forces of their own creation that confront them as alien powers.
Socialism
The doctrine that the struggle for the equal distribution of wealth can be achieved by eliminating private property and the exploitive ruling class and replacing it with public ownership.
Martin Jay's The Dialectical Imagination
The most authoritative account of the Critical School.
Efficacy
The perceived ability of an individual to exert control over one's future.
Reading Room of the British Museum
The place where Marx did most of his reading, research, and writing.
Class consciousness
The self-identification as having a common role in society.
Proletariat
The social class who survive by means of selling its labor.
TAT
Thematic Appreciation Test.
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Theorized that society progresses because of wars, revolutions, and other struggles of the oppressed against the oppressors.
Critical scholars
Think that the mass media are used by the establishment to control society. Crucial issues to critical scholars are who owns and controls mass media, a macro view.
Marx's reason to study human behavior
To develop theories useful to human beings struggling to create a better world.
Marx's Social conflict theory
Was based on class struggle, the irreconcilable conflicts between exploitees and the exploiters that is based on individuals' differential access to the means of production.
Critical theorists
Were free to act as a kind of conscience of society, to champion unpopular causes, and to oppose powerful establishment forces.
Das Kapital
Written by Marx, focused on the sordid conditions of the working class, such as women and children who worked as ragpickers, makers of clay tile, or in factories.
