Critical Theory (DEVETAK 2005)

Richard Devetak, Critical Theory,

in

Scott Burchill, Andrew Linklater, Richard Devetak, Jack Donnelly, Matthew Paterson, Christian Reus-Smit and Jacqui True, Theories of International Relations, third edition, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2005

 

(...)

Origins of critical theory

137 Critical theory has its roots in a strand of thought which is often traced back to the Enlightenment and connected to the writings of Kant, Hegel and Marx.

138 While this is an important lineage in the birth of critical theory it is not the only possible one that can be traced, as there is also the imprint of classical Greek thought on autonomy and democracy to be considered, as well as the thinking of Nietzsche and Weber. (...)

Indeed, this concern extends the line of thought back beyond Kant to the classical Greek conviction that the rational constitution of the polis finds its expression in individual autonomy and the establishment of justice and democracy. Politics, on this understanding, is the realm concerned with realizing the just life.

There is, however, an important difference between critical theory and the Greeks which relates to the conditions under which knowledge claims can be made regarding social and political life.

 

 

The politics of knowledge in International Relations theory

 

Problem-solving and critical theories

144 (...) Since there are no objective theoretical frameworks there can be no Archimedean standpoint outside history or society from which to engage in ethical criticism or judgement.

 

 

Rethinking political community

 

The normative dimension: the critique of ethical particularism and social exclusion

147-148 (...) Men and Citizens [A. Linklater 1990] is, among other things, a work of recovery. It seeks to recover a political philosophy based on universal ethical reasoning which has been progressively marginalized in the twentieth century, especially with the onset of the Cold War and the hegemony of realism. That is, it seeks to recover and reformulate the Stoic–Christian ideal of human community.

149 (...) Although the main influences on his argument are Tzvetan Todorov and Hans-Georg Gadamer rather than Habermas, Shapcott’s critique of the self is consistent with Linklater’s and Hutchings’.