On Critical Theory

Critical theory is perspicacious nonsense. Criticism means examining, differentiating, evaluation. Theory means a knowledge structure. According to Kant, criticism therefore constitutes a »propaedeutic« to theory.

If we merge the two, we become entangled in a contradiction. Gunnar Hindrichs’ new studies deal with this perspicacious nonsense of critical theory and they go against the belief that critical theory formed a meaningful element within the framework of science. Its business, according to Hinrichs, is rather that of performing the crisis of meaning. In the multifaceted crisis of our present, however, thinking that has absorbed the form of the crisis becomes significant in a new way.

»... a powerfully convincing reconstruction of Critical Theory, whose objective has rarely been worked out with this much precision.« Jennifer Stevens, Zeitschrift für Kulturphilosophie