The Frankfurt School' refers to the members associated with the "Institut fur Sozialforschung (Institute for Social Research) " which was founded in Frankfurt in 1923. The work of this group is generally agreed to have been a landmark in twentieth century social science. It is of seminal importance in our understanding of culture, progress, politics, production, consumption and method.
This set of six volumes provides a full picture of the School by examining the important developments that have occured since the deaths of the original core of Frankfurt scholars. All the major...

In this study, which places Habermas' work in the context of critical theory as a whole past and future, J.M. Bernstein argues that despite its undoubted achievements, it contributes to the very problems of ethical dislocation and meaninglessness it aims to diagnose and remedy.

Jurgen Habermas' construction of a critical social theory of society grounded in communicative reason is one of few real philosophical inventions of recent times that demands and repays extended engagement. In this study, which places Habermas' project in the context of critical theory as a whole past and future, J.M. Bernstein argues that despite its undoubted achievements, it contributes to the very problems of ethical dislocation and meaninglessness it aims to diagnose and remedy. Bernstein further argues that the precise character of the failures of Habermas' programme demonstrates the...

This volume brings together major works by German thinkers who were extremely influential in the crucial period of aesthetics prior to and after Kant. It includes the first translation into English of Schiller's Kallias Letters and Moritz's on the Artistic Imitation of the Beautiful, and new translations of some of Holderlin's most important theoretical writings and works by Hamann, Lessing, Novalis and Schlegel. The volume features an introduction in which J.M. Bernstein places the works in their historical and philosophical context.

Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) was the leading philosopher of the first generation of the Frankfurt School and is best known for his contributions to aesthetics and social theory. In this highly original contribution to the literature on Adorno, J.M. Bernstein offers the first attempt in any language to provide an account of the ethical theory latent in Adorno's writings. This book will be widely acknowledged as the standard work on Adorno's ethics and will interest professionals and students of philosophy, political theory, sociology, history of ideas, art history and music.

The aim of this book is to provide an account of modernist painting that follows on from the aesthetic theory of Theodor W. Adorno. It offers a materialist account of modernism with detailed discussions of modern aesthetics from Kant to Arthur Danto, Stanley Cavell, and Adorno. It discusses in detail competing accounts of modernism: Clement Greenberg, Michael Fried, Yve-Alain Bois, and Thierry de Duve; and it discusses several painters and artists in detail: Pieter de Hooch, Jackson Pollock, Robert Ryman, Cindy Sherman, and Chaim Soutine. Its central thesis is that modernist painting...

This original and wide-ranging book, now available in paperback, is a major contribution to contemporary philosophy. Bernstein focuses on the work of four key thinkers - Kant, Heidegger, Derrida and Adorno - and provides a powerful new interpretation of their writings on art, aesthetics and politics.

Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) was the leading philosopher of the first generation of the Frankfurt School and is best known for his contributions to aesthetics and social theory. In this highly original contribution to the literature on Adorno, J.M. Bernstein offers the first attempt in any language to provide an account of the ethical theory latent in Adorno's writings. This book will be widely acknowledged as the standard work on Adorno's ethics and will interest professionals and students of philosophy, political theory, sociology, history of ideas, art history and music.

Theodor Adorno's Aesthetic Theory (1970) offers one of the most powerful and comprehensive critiques of art and of the discipline of aesthetics ever written. The work offers a deeply critical engagement with the history and philosophy of aesthetics and with the traditions of European art through the middle of the 20th century. It is coupled with ambitious claims about what aesthetic theory ought to be. But the cultural horizon of Adorno's Aesthetic Theory was the world of high modernism, and much has happened since then both in theory and in practice. Adorno's powerful vision of aesthetics...