Manchester University Press Critical Theory and Epistemology: The Politics of Modern Thought and Science (Critical Theory and Contemporary Society)

In this book, Anastasia Marinopoulou conducts a systematic comparison of modern epistemology and the epistemological concerns of the Frankfurt School, addressing phenomenology, structuralism and poststructuralism, modernism and postmodernism, systems theory and critical realism. Beginning with an examination of twentieth-century epistemology, particularly the concept of lifeworld (Lebenswelt), Marinopoulou traces the development of the field up to the present day, considering basic conceptions such as dialectics, theory and practice in science, and the potential for a political epistemology based on the arguments of critical theory. Throughout this, she provides a concrete analysis of the work of leading Frankfurt School figures, including Horkheimer, Adorno and Habermas, and raises key questions on methodology in science and research. The book contains previously unpublished commentary from Jürgen Habermas (on systems theory), William Outhwaite (on critical realism) and Stefan Müller-Doohm (on the Frankfurt School), provided to the author in recent interviews. It is organised to be of practical use for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and each chapter includes graphs and schemata that condense the basic argument for the area of modern epistemology and methodology under examination.