Immanent Critique and Particular Moral Experience

Titus Stahl*

*Corresponding author for this work

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16 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Critical theories often express scepticism towards the idea that social critique should draw on general normative principles, seeing such principles as bound to dominant conceptual frameworks. However, even the models of immanent critique developed in the Frankfurt School tradition seem to privilege principles over particular moral experiences. Discussing the place that particular moral experience has in the models of Honneth, Ferrara and Adorno, the article argues that experience can play an important negative role even for a critical theory that is committed to the necessity of conceptual mediation, as moral experiences can undermine our confidence in the appropriateness of our moral concepts. Building on McDowell’s account of moral perception and Brandom’s interpretation of Hegel’s theory of experience, one can reconstruct Adorno as providing a “radically negativist” approach to immanent critique that takes particular moral experience seriously.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-21
Number of pages21
JournalCritical Horizons. A Journal of Philosophy and Social Theory
Volume23
Issue number1
Early online date11-Oct-2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2022

Keywords

  • critical theory
  • immanent critique
  • moral perception
  • Theodor W. Adorno
  • Axel Honneth
  • Robert Brandom
  • John McDowell

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  • Crítica inmanente y experiencia moral particular

    Translated title of the contribution: Immanent critique and particular moral experienceStahl, T., 11-Mar-2020, Crítica inmanente de la sociedad. Romero, J. M. & Zamora, J. A. (eds.). Barcelona: Anthropos, p. 19-49 31 p. (Pensamiento crítico/pensamiento utópico; vol. 236).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademic

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