Critical Theory and Processual Social Ontology
Keywords:
critical theory, process philosophy, social transformation, social ontology, social theoryAbstract
The purpose of this article is to bridge the gap between critical theory as understood in the Frankfurt school tradition on the one hand, and social ontology understood as a reflection on the ontological presuppositions of social sciences and social theories on the other. What is at stake is the type of social ontology that critical theory needs if it wants to tackle its main social ontological issue: that of social transformation. This paper’s claim is that what is required is neither a substantial social ontology, nor a relational social ontology, but a processual one. The first part of this article elaborates the distinction between substantial, relational and processual social ontologies. The second part analyzes the various ways in which this distinction can be used in social ontological discussions. Finally, the third part focuses on the various possible social ontological approaches to the issue of social transformation.
References
Adorno, Theodor W. (1961): “La statique et la dynamique comme catégories sociologiques”. In: Diogène 33, p. 35–54.
Adorno, Theodor W. (1976): “Introduction”. In: Theodor W. Adorno, et al. (eds.): The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology, New York: Harper & Row, p. 1–67.
Adorno, Theodor W. (2008): Philosophische Elemente einer Theorie der Gesellschaft, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
Althusser, Louis (1970): “Contradiction and Overdetermination”. In: For Marx, New York: Vintage, p. 89–128.
Althusser, Louis (2004): “Marx’s Relation to Hegel”. In: Denis King Keenan (ed.): Hegel and Contemporary Continental Philosophy, Albany: State University of New York, p. 255–272.
Althusser, Louis (2009): Reading Capital, London: Verso.
Arendt, Hannah (1958): The Human Condition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Aristotle (1974): Categories, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Aristotle (1994): Metaphysics. Books Z and H, Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oseo/instance.00262329
Aristotle (2008): Physics, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bellan, Alessandro, Cicatello Agelo, and Cortella Lucio (2009): “Le ‘Meditazioni sulla metafisica’ nella Diallettica Negativa di Adorno”. In: Lucio Cortella (ed.): Teoria critica e metafisica. Milano: Mimesis, p. 105–182.
Bergson, Henri (1998): Creative Evolution, Mineola: Dover Publications.
Binoche, Bertrand (2007): La Raison sans l’Histoire, Paris: Puf. https://doi.org/10.3917/puf.binoc.2007.01
Bourdieu, Pierre (1990): In Other Words. Essays Towards a Reflexive Sociology, Standford: Stanford University Press.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1991): “Social Space and the Genesis of Classes”. In: Language and Symbolic Power, Cambridge: Polity Press, p. 229–250.
Bourdieu, Pierre (1992): The Logic of Practice, Standford: Standford University Press.
Cassirer, Ernst (1980): Substance and Function, Mineola: Dover Publications.
Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix (2006): “May 68 did not take place”. In: Deleuze, Gilles: Two Regimes of Madness, New York: Semiotext(e), p. 233–236.
Dewey, John (1978a): Reconstruction in Philosophy. In: The Middle Works 12, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dewey, John (1978b): Human Nature and Conduct. In: The Middle Works 19, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dewey, John (1985): “From Absolutism to Experimentalism”. In: The Later Works 5, Carbondale: University of Southern Illinois Press, p. 147–160.
Dewey, John and Bentley, Arthur F. (1985): The Knowing and the Known. In: Later Works 16, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Duménil, Gérard (1978): Le Concept de loi économique dans le Capital, Paris: Maspero.
Durkheim, Emile (1951): Suicide: A Study in Sociology, New York: The Free Press.
Durkheim, Emile (1965): The Rules of Sociological Method, New York: Free Press.
Durkheim, Emile (1997): The Division of Labor in Society, New York: Free Press.
Goffman, Erwin (1974): Frame Analysis. An Essay of the Organization of Experience, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Gould Carol C. (1978): Marx’s Social Ontology. Individuality and Community in Marx’s Theory of Social Reality, Cambridge: MIT Press.
Habermas, Jürgen (1986): Knowledge and Interests, Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hegel, Georg. W. F. (1970): Philosophy of Nature, Part 1, London: Allen and Unwin.
Hegel, Georg. W. F. (2010): Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Basic Outline. Part 1: Science of Logic, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9780511780226
Horkheimer, Max (1993): “The Present Situation of Social Philosophy and the Tasks of an Institute for Social Research”. In: Between Philosophy and Social Science: Selected Early Writings, Cambridge: MIT Press, p. 1–14. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/1565.003.0003
Horkheimer, Max (1999): “Traditional and Critical Theory”. In: Critical Theory: Selected Essays, New York: Continuum Press, p. 188–243.
Ikäheimo, Heikki and Laitinen, Arto (eds.) (2011): Recognition and Social Ontology, Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004202900.i-398
Joas Hans (1993): Pragmatism and Social Theory, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Leibniz, Gottfried W. (1991): Monadology, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburg Press.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude (1974): Structural Anthropology, New York: Basic books.
Marx, Karl (1978): Le Capital. Livre 1, Paris: Éditions sociales, tome 1.
Marx, Karl (1990): Capital I, London: Penguin Classics.
Menger, Karl (1976): Principles of Economics, Auburn: The Institut for Humane Studies.
Pomeroy, Anne F. (2004): Marx and Whitehead: Process, Dialectics and the Critique of Capitalism, New York: Suny Press.
Renault, Emmanuel (2001): La Naturalisation de la dialectique, Paris: Vrin.
Renault, Emmanuel (2012): “Adorno: de la philosophie sociale à la théorie sociale”. In: Recherches sur la philosophie et le langage 28, p. 229–258.
Renault, Emmanuel (2015): Connaître ce qui est. Enquête sur le présentisme hégélien, Paris: Vrin.
Rescher, Nicholas (1996): Process Metaphysics. An Introduction to Process Philosophy, New York: State University of New York Press.
Rescher, Nicholas (2000): Process Philosophy. A survey of Basic Issues, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburg Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt6wrc3b
Searle, John R. (1995): The Construction of Social Reality, New York: The Free Press.
Stahl, Titus (2013): Immanente Kritik: Elemente einer Theorie sozialer Praktiken, Frankfurt: Campus Verlag.
Tarde, Gabriel (1907): The Laws of Imitation, New York: Henry Holt & Co.
Weber, Max (1978): Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, Berkeley: California University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2016 Emmanuel Renault
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.
