The Frankfurt school and the main trends of the historical-philosophical process in contemporary Germany

Lobachevsky State Uni­ver­si­ty of Nizh­ni Nov­gorod

The Frank­furt school and the main trends of the his­tor­i­cal-philo­soph­i­cal process in con­tem­po­rary Ger­many

Abstract. In Decem­ber 21, 2017 at the Lobachevsky State Uni­ver­si­ty the dis-cus­sion was held on the ideas of the Frank­furt School in the main­stream of the fol­low­ing aspects. First, the philo­soph­i­cal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for the idea of jus­tice as the prin­ci­ple of a ratio­nal and pro­gres­sive social order. Sec­ond, the study of the real­i­ties of con­tem­po­rary world soci­ety as the “late cap­i­tal­ist” focused on under­stand­ing which pro­gres­sive social forces can insti­gate reform­ing of world cap­i­tal­ism toward the social demo­c­ra­t­ic ide­al of a ratio­nal and just soci­ety. Third, polit­i­cal stud­ies of how new soci­eties can emerge able to become a “group of influ­ence” in the mod­ern Euro­pean polit­i­cal process and imple­ment the philo­soph­i­cal ideals of the Frank­furt School. The par­tic­i­pants also con­sid­ered such key con­cepts of Jur­gen Haber­mas’ sys­tem as com­mu­nica­tive mind, com­mu­nica­tive action, and dis­course, as well as a num­ber of philo­soph­i­cal sources that influ­enced the for­ma­tion of his the­o­ry. Also some con­cepts of such con­tem­po­rary, though less known in Rus­sia, thinkers – fol­low­ers of the Frank­furt School’s ideas, as Axel Hon­neth and Rain­er Forst, were pre­sent­ed. The dis­cus­sion also touched upon pos­si­ble sce­nar­ios for the devel­op­ment of the world social process, includ­ing the issue of spir­i­tu­al­i­ty.

Key­words: social phi­los­o­phy, Frank­furt school, Jur­gen Haber­mas, Karl-Otto Apel, Axel Hon­neth, instru­men­tal rea­son, cap­i­tal­ism, the­o­ry of com­mu­nica­tive action.

DOI: 10.5840/dspl20181328

Ref­er­ences:

1. Shachin, S.V. Zakony dialek­ti­ki i printsipy sis­tem­nos­ti: opyt novo­go obosno­vaniya [The laws of dialec­tics and the prin­ci­ples of sys­tem­at­ics: the ex-peri­ence of a new ratio­nale]. Moscow: URSS, 2014. 127 pp. (In Russ­ian)
2. Shachin, S.V. Kom­mu­nika­tiv­naya teoriya razu­ma Yur­ge­na Khaber­masa [Jur­gen Haber­mas’ com­mu­nica­tive the­o­ry of mind]. Mur­man­sk: MPGU, 2010. 243 pp. (In Russ­ian)
3. Shachin, S.V. Kontsept­sii sovre­menno­go yestestvoz­naniya (Plan-kon­spekt teo­retich­eskoy chasti kur­sa) [Con­cepts of mod­ern nat­ur­al sci­ence (the out­line of the the­o­ret­i­cal part of the course)]: Tuto­r­i­al for human­i­ties stu­dents / Mur­man­sk State Ped­a­gog­i­cal Insti­tute. Mur­man­sk: MGPI, 2001. 83 pp. (In Russ­ian)
4. Shachin, S.V. Filosofiya Frank­furt­skoy shkoly i Rossiya: opyt sin­teza nemet­sko­go rat­sion­al­iz­ma i rossiyskoy dukhovnos­ti [The Frank­furt School’s phi­los­o­phy and Rus­sia: the expe­ri­ence of the syn­the­sis of Ger­man ratio­nal­ism and Russ­ian spir­i­tu­al­i­ty]. Moscow: URSS; Lenand, 2017. 299 pp. (In Russ­ian)
5. Shachin, S.V. Filosofiya Frank­furt­skoy shkoly: Ot Khaber­masa do Lib­sha [The Frank­furt School’s phi­los­o­phy: from Haber­mas to Lieb­sch]. Moscow: URSS, 2015. 216 pp. (In Russ­ian)