Two sorts of philosophical therapy

Ordinary language philosophy, social criticism and the Frankfurt school

Bibliographic Data

ID6444967
AuthorsTom Whyman (0000-0003-0939-8134, University of Liverpool, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume51
Issue6
Pages951-970
Publication date2023-10-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhilosophy & Social Criticism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0191-4537 • E-ISSN: 1461-734X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/01914537231203525
OpenAlexW4387878964
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited9

In a recent article, Fabian Freyenhagen argues that we should understand first-generation Frankfurt School critical theory (in particular, the work of Adorno and Horkheimer) as being defined by a kind of ‘linguistic turn’ analogous to one present in the later Wittgenstein. Here, I elaborate on this hypothesis – initially by calling it into question, by detailing Herbert Marcuse’s extensive criticisms of Wittgenstein (and other analytic philosophers of language) in One-Dimensional Man. While Marcuse is harshly critical of analytic ordinary language philosophy, he is much more sympathetic to a different sort of ordinary language philosophy, which he unpacks with reference to Karl Kraus. I show how, by getting Marcuse’s criticisms of Wittgenstein and other analytic philosophers, and lauding of Kraus, into view, we can better understand the first generation of the Frankfurt School as having practised a sort of ‘non-quietistic’ philosophical therapy (that may or may not have been the sort of thing that Wittgenstein himself had in mind

Critical theory · Criticism · Epistemology · Literature · Ordinary language philosophy · Philosophical methodology · Sociology · sort · Western philosophy · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Mathematics · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy

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