Before getting into the details of LSS I will indicate what I take to be soft spots of the Frankfurt/Critical Theory program. February 4th, 2007 Rafe Champion
First of all they are committed to the replacement of what they call capitalism (under various names) by some kind of socialism and participatory democracy. Quite likely these aims are contradictory. They may have given up on revolution but instead them make do with crisis. Those who are humane and reasonable people presumably expect that the changes that they desire will promote peace, freedom and prosperity but they never (to my knowledge) come to grips with the classical liberal agenda which has the same objectives by very different means. It is hard to know whether this is a manifestation of ignorance and lack of curiosity, or whether it just demonstrates the power of groupthink among networks of friends and associates (like the 30 people who endorsed David McKnights book).
Those who write hundreds of thousands of words on methodology and cultural critiques are apparently unable to explain what actual concrete policy proposals they would like to put in place to improve the situation. Cultural critique stands in place of policy and planning, with specified targets and examples of success and failure where policies have been tried. Part of their problem is that any talk of success and failure would need to specify targets and criteria for success and that would mean coming down out of the clouds to talk about the world we actually live in. Their complaints are too vague to allow for rigorous analysis – for example we consume too much – but by what criterion? And do they think that wage reductions would help? (a prima facie excellent policy to reduce consumption).
The other soft spots that I had in mind can actually be found in LSS because they are errors of epistemology, methodology, the theory of rationality, theories of language, psychology, literary interpretation and textual analysis. And more (for another time).
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