{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","title":"Critical Theory of Communication New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781911534044","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","id":"dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","uuid":"dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","title":"Critical Theory of Communication New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet","normalized_title":"criticaltheoryofcommunicationnewreadingsoflukácsadornomarcusehonnethandhabermasintheageoftheinternet","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781911534044","isbns":["9781911534044","9781911534051","9781911534068","9781911534075"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":236,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Critical%20Theory%20of%20Communication%20New%20Readings%20of%20Luk%C3%A1cs%2C%20Adorno%2C%20Marcuse%2C%20Honneth%20and%20Habermas%20in%20the%20Age%20of%20the%20Internet","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/dadb939e-7360-4727-a1fb-be08c2f7a611/search"},"page":{"printed_page":24,"pdf_page":28,"physical_index":28,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"e588b0958ab613b0d135100291b9d62ba594394b34966dacbea4459651a6cdcd"},"chapter":"C H R I S T I A N F U C H S CRITICAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION","content":"1.3.3. Lukács’ Ontology of Social Being\n\nLukács’ Ontology of Social Being is an extensive book comprising of 1,460 pages in total, separated into two volumes in the German edition. Some chapters of the Ontology have been translated into English and published in three parts in a total of 436 pages, which shows that large parts have remained thus far untranslated. We do not know why exactly there has thus far not been an interest to translate the whole book into English and why the excerpts that have been published in English as three short volumes have hardly been read, cited and discussed. History and Class Consciousness is extremely dominant in Lukács’ reception. In March 2016, History and Class Consciousness had around 5,400 citations on Google Scholar, the Ontology’s English excerpts’ first volume eight citations, the second four, and the third volume five. The German version of History and Class Consciousness had 1,372 citations, whereas the complete German version of the Ontology published in Lukács’ Collected Works only had four.2\n\nMy point is that also Lukács’ final work has key relevance for Marxist cultural theory. One can say that the Ontology is Lukács’ ultimate critical social theory. In it, he, in contrast to most of his previous works, also reflects on the relationship of the economy and culture, the relationship of labour and ideology, and the relationship work and communication. In the Ontology, Lukács introduces the concept of teleological positing for describing human activity and for arguing that the economy and culture are identical and non-identical at the same time. In the aforementioned essays, Adorno conceives Hegel’s dialectical thought as the dialectic of identity and non-identity. Applying this idea to the relationship of the economy and culture allows him to therefore also stress that these two realms are at the same time identical and non-identical. These and other works come quite close to Raymond Williams’ understanding of dialectical Cultural Materialism. It is therefore time to no longer think about Williams and the Frankfurt School in terms of non-equivalence, but rather as a dialectic of identity and non-identity that recognises diferent backgrounds and context, but also stresses their commonalities.\n\n1.3.4. Negative Critique?\n\nI want to pre-empt the criticism that this book is just a form of negative critique that is not constructive, does not analyse social movements, does not make suggestions how to change things, is therefore pessimist, etc. Critical theory critically interprets the world and has the potential to clarify what is wrong in it and why. We all have to politically change the world. Theory is an intervention into politics, but is not an autonomous political world in itself. Critical theory has first and foremost to be a negative dialectical theory in order to be critical. The demand that one has to be constructive, optimistic and looking for social change tends to limit critique and to draw attention away from what is wrong with the totality. Too much research that sympathises with and studies progressive societal change, i.e. research on progressive social movements, is a celebration of the radical and novel potentials of political groups, how they use various media in protest and mobilisation communication, etc. What is often forgotten is how dificult activism often and necessarily is in the global capitalist world because it automatically has to act from a position of resource inequality, where those in power control much more economic, political and cultural resources than civil society.\n\n24\n\nCritical Theory of Communication","previous_page":23,"next_page":25}