Critical Theory and/as Political Philosophy

In this chapter, I would like to consider the complicated relationship between Critical Theory (which is taken here in the restricted sense of the Frankfurt School tradition) and Political Philosophy. I will capitalise these two intellectual endeavours for the sake of clarity, so their names appear distinctly in the discussions that follow. The purpose of my chapter is to problematise the long-standing suspicions of classical and contemporary Political Philosophy by Critical Theorists, so that one may question the boundaries that are often erected within Critical Theory in relation to Political Philosophy, and thereby encourage Critical Theorists to engage more substantially with the latter.
The chapter proceeds in five steps. In the first section, I briefly summarise the defining features of the research programme that the name of Critical Theory designates. Despite all the fluctuations in the understanding of it, and the immense variations in the theoretical tools mobilised to attempt to fulfil it, if we restrict the focus to the most eminent representatives of the tradition, a consistent project can be identified from the moment of its inception until today. I summarise the key features of the Critical Theory project to then highlight, in the second section, the different ways in which political dimensions are entailed in it. I distinguish a number of senses of “politics” in which Critical Theory takes an interest, as a direct result of its project. In the third section, I briefly recall the methodological, conceptual, and political reasons explaining why, throughout the generations, Critical Theorists have been suspicious of classical and contemporary Political Philosophy.
To justify these claims and the call for greater cooperation between the traditions, I highlight, in the fourth section of this chapter, a number of areas in which work in Critical Theory has shown itself to be relatively underdetermined on political issues. In the final section, I provide some suggestions for how contemporary Critical Theory might address some of its deficits in the treatment of political questions, by engaging with authors situated outside the tradition.