The Interest in Emancipation. The Trajectories of the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School

Abstract

In the article is proposed a reconstruction of some passages of particular theoretical relevance in the history of the Frankfurt School regarding the concept of emancipation. The thesis that is to be verified is that, in spite of the wide range of variations on the theme, it is possible to isolate some specific features of the "Frankfurt" perspective on emancipation, which can be recognized in all the interpretations that have been made of it. In the new generations of Frankfurt critical theorists, however, there has emerged the need to rethink this motif outside the frameworks of idealistic and Marxist philosophy of history in which it was initially interpreted. The challenge is to rethink emancipation as a goal of determined and specific praxis, anchored in nonlinear, interdependent but distinct and even conflicting paths of social progress.