Definition of Frankfurt School

The School de Frankurt alludes to a Marxist-inspired German philosophical current that began in the 1920s. This stream of thought had as its most illustrious representatives the philosopher Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, Herbert Marcuse and later Jurgen Habernas. His intellectual activity was associated with the Institute of Investigation Social, an entity linked to the University of Frankfurt. To disseminate their reflections, the promoters of this current used a magazine of thought called Zeitschrift.

When the National Socialists took power in 1933, members of the Frankfurt School were forced to emigrate to other countries, especially the United States.

General features of the Frankfurt School

The various philosophers of this movement were inspired by the thought of Karl Mark with the intention of adapting it to the historical coordinates of his time, singularly the Nazism and its most direct consequence, World War II.

Frankfurters share a global vision, which in

philosophy It has received the name of Critical Theory of Society, which consists of updating and revising Marxist theory. One of his main concerns was the denunciation of new forms of domination (for example, consumerism) or forms of rationality protected by the single thought.

Philosophers of the Frankfurt School conceive of philosophy not as theoretical speculation but as a project of social transformation. In this sense, they had a attitude combative with respect to the role of science and technology, since they considered that new forms of domination of the human being were hidden in them. On the other hand, they denounced that society was subjected to deceptive liberation processes. They understood that human reason must seek the emancipation of individuals and of society as a whole.

They reflected on key issues in culture and society: the ideas of the Enlightenment, the family, freedom, authoritarianism, prejudice or the self.

The Frankfurters were critical of Western culture and advocated a social transformation based on a humanism renewed and new ethical and cultural approaches. In fact, some members of the Frankfurt School were promoting countercultural movements of the 1960s (the opposition to the Vietnam War, criticism of the American dream, the defense of civil rights and the denunciation of the different authoritarianisms).

In short, the Frankfurt School was a philosophical movement with a defined project: to reflect on society with the purpose of achieving a social change with an emancipatory dimension.

Photos: iStock - Shelley Gammon / Anna Bryukhanova

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