The concept of critical theory and its importance
If observed through time and from the various attitudes and behavior of individuals it can be verified that there has always been a tension within the person, between people and in society. This tension in man is played between knowledge, the desire for domain and critical capacity, as presented by the final aphorism of the minimum Moralia:
Knowledge has no other light than the one that shines on the world from redemption: everything else remains in posteriori and in pure technique. It would be necessary to invent perspectives in which the world is reversed, missed, show its cracks and breaks, it is displayed as homeless and distorted as it ever appears to the messianic light. The only thing that should worry the thinker is to obtain those perspectives without arbitrariness or violence, but through a rapport with objects. (Adorno, 2001, P. 250)
Knowledge is a wonderful light that illuminates and replaces in all objects and subjects. Knowledge is present and penetrates beings in different ways, and then flow in the form of laws, beauties, impulses, reproduction, conservation, fraternity, creativity etc,. The open thinking mind, the contemplative eye, the attentive ear and intuition manageTicket doors to make history the project generation space ”(Zemelman, 2003, p: 89).
All people, without breed or place distinction, are endowed with that power of power in power. How much depth!, How much wealth and creative capacity houses the human being!, to impose and consolidate knowledge and projects on the stage of history and for all generations.
Returning to what says Adorno there are "cracks and breaks" in the world. The cracks and breakage of the inequality of the social classes, of the impoverished masses, of the oppressed, of those punished by the serious violence and injustices. These inequalities of the world are the usual and occur in the diverse cultures and also, in the culture of great trajectories, such as Russia, Europe and many other states, where workers and proletariat have been seen impoverished, while whileThe few gentlemen benefit from their work. Thus also the lie, the horror of fascism and so many other cracks and tears in the world, when he is injured in death and humiliated human life.
This is because there is a dominant, oppressive mind that proposes to maintain a status of misery and indolence, as Freire says: “Vocation denied in injustice, in exploitation, in oppression in the violence of the oppressors of the oppressors. Affirmed in the desire for freedom, of justice, of struggle of the oppressed for the recovery of their humanity stripped ”(Freire, 1970, p: 24).
But thanks, that given this serious reality of oppressors and oppress, there have been those critical posture men who, before reality, and of which they have been touched deeply they have managed to contemplate the reality. These men of culture: sociologists, psychologists, pedagogues and philosophers who have not comply with mental schemes, moral stiffness and unbridled ambition. They observed reality, LS analyzed, applied thesis and invented.
In this way, the philosophy that applies the name of "critical theory" to the doctrine that originated in the Frankfurt School of Meno, at the Social Research Institute, whose purpose was to establish a criticism of traditional theory, arises. This institute was related to Marxism. A group of described intellectuals as neomarxists, relying on the traditional Marxist theory and after making a series of criticisms obtains a new theoretical body, whose objective constitutes what one of its exponents Max Horkheimer maintains: “This theory must seek human independence fromSlavery and should work to create a world where man has his needs satisfied ” .
This theoretical body reinterprets the objective autonomous thought, free of commitments and responses to a practical socio-political commitment, far from reproducing only concepts, which becomes a philosophical mission, the theoretical illustration of action. That is, the concept constitutes reality.
The principles of this critical theory:
It opposes the separation between subject and reality. But it depends on the practices of the era and experience, in this way systematized knowledge and science are obtained according to the evolution of social life, and said praxis is linked to the organization of scientific knowledge of a particularMoment of History.
Critical theory relies on dialectical knowledge. That is, opposes closed theories, and pays special attention to the context of society.
The main exponents of this theory are and are divided into two generations:
- The first Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse
- The second Walter Benjamin, Jürgen Habermas and Karl Otto Apel
The advantage of this theory is to have managed to expand and relate to specialized sciences, which made it possible to generate an interdisciplinary research such as sociological and philosophical research, communicative action and literary criticism. In addition, he covered other social sciences, such as education, linguistics, psychology, sociology, semiotics and ecology, among others. This theory has contributed so that the various science and discipline.
Critical theory in education reduces positivism, emancipating, and seeks facts that interpret reality in a critical and reflective way in order to ensure the transformative elements of an education that knows how to mediate between the individual and the broader social reality. Consider that all are involved in a historical-cultural context, that is, everyone is socially constituted. Trying to eliminate the gap between rich and poor. Socially the poor are the excluded of the good of education.
Critical theory redirects education towards a training process that contains the training of the teacher and the student towards a critical and reflection process to achieve a new paradigm that focuses on the truth of the facts. Thus teachers can intervene in the process systematically and interdisciplinarily in school. The student training process will depend on the critical and reflective thinking with which society wants to transform.
Emancipation advocated by this theory implies, achieving a state of cognitive and responsibility autonomy, necessary in training for an education and reflection education for life and freedom. For this, a curriculum is necessary that promotes integral formation, since it will organize and direct the educational actions that will train the critical man. It is also necessary to involve the theory to practice in a shared vision that leads to a logical reason for actions, it is about freeing through knowledge and training processes.
It is worth keeping in the contribution Wilfred Carra regarding educational practical theory:
An aspect of that contribution has consisted of showing that the value, significance and meaning of practice are not evident: they are built. The second aspect has consisted of reviving and expanding our knowledge of the nature of reasoning on, in and through practice, recovering on the one hand, the Aristotelian perspective of practical reasoning, and on the other, enriching the Aristotelian vision in the light of thecontemporary positions of critical social theory, to reach the idea of critical reasoning. The third aspect of his contribution has consisted of showing that these perspectives on the character of practice and reasoning and practical and critical reasoning have significant consequences for educational research, highlighting weak points and erroneous conceptions … laying the foundations onthat a more appropriate form of educational research can be established: a critical science of education. (Carr, 2002, p: 17)
Concluding, critical theory constitutes a great wealth for all humanity, since its objective is to investigate, to positively question all projects and processes to verify truthfulness, deviations, errors, deception etc., that can occur, either in theory as in practice. It is important that between theory and practice there is a dialectic and a true and humble reasoning. In education under the focus of critical tería, it helps to avoid in the teacher the banking of Educar and in the students the mechanist and routine mode of learning to make them critical, positive and creative people in relation to others and the environment.
Leave feedback