Jürgen Habermas

Herbert Marcuse published An Essay on Liberation in 1969. Marcuse was a German-born Jewish philosopher and political theorist who fled Germany during World War II and relocated to America. Marcuse was one of the primary theorists of the Frankfurt School and is credited as being one of the founders of Critical Theory. In his essay Marcuse use critical theory to critique the capitalistic society in America and global dominion. The essay is portioned into four main areas which are A Biological Foundation for Socialism, The New Sensibility, Subverting Forces-in Transition, and Solidarity. The single thread that is woven throughout the essay is individual liberation. Marcuse holds that the individual must be liberated for society as a whole to be liberated and the individual must be free both mentally and physically. Liberation is more than the freedom to move freely and to go where one wants to go whenever one chooses; Marcuse held the body could be free but the mind could be bound and imprisoned without any outward signs to the contrary and was just as incapacitating. The power to control the market cycle of products, entertainment, and social perception influenced the behavior of the mass, brainwashing them into subservient positions. The effectiveness of system was held to be self-sustaining and self-perpetuating. Marcuse held that “critical theory may…be able to determine the basic institutional changes which [were] the prerequisites for the transition to a higher stage…

I Legal procedure and moral-practical discourse 1 Habermas versus Weber on legitimacy and the moral dimension of law In any legal theory the relation between law and morality is problematic. Reflecting on this link is relevant to the issue of the legitimacy of law. The ’classical’ and still predominant view on the legitimacy of law is that of Weber (1956). His concept of formal rationality of law presupposes a strict separation of law from morality. According to Weber, law derives its…

WEEK REFLECTION This week 's reflection has resumed the debate on participation and communication with a special focus on planning theory and practices. This discussion shed light on the rise of new ways of planning different to the traditional rational planning approach. In particular, this reflection expands on communicative planning (sometimes called collaborative planning), an approach based on the use of communication to help different interests in the process understand each other.…

Immanuel Kant is most notably known as the man whose ideas on morality have greatly shaped the landscape of Ethics. Perhaps most important is his concept of rational humans having inherent dignity, but is this philosophy still true today and if so is it still relevant in a society that has so many more facets in a world far more complex than the time he lived. By introducing and explaining Kant’s concept of inherent dignity and showing how some people or groups of people have been at the both a…

The culture industry argument, established by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, is a critique of mass media, which refers to the industrialization of culture, where the masses are not the only source of mass culture; capitalism serves the masses, and treats them like commodities for their own benefit (McAnany & Wilkinson, 1996). Adorno and Horkheimer chose to call it culture industry, rather than mass media, because they believed that in mass media, masses had some influence upon the creation…

and therefore could help by providing suggestions of how to care of ones situation. The internet is one of the primary places where people look for employment for example take a look at LinkedIn, with this access one has an upper hand just due to a connection to the internet. LinkedIn is one of many sites which is used for job recruitment. Due to the shift in times this type of technology is required just to get in contact with a company for example having broadband would give you the ability…

It is important to find out how reflection is carried out as this is an essential constituent in human learning and development. Reflection is a complex cognitive activity where evidence is generated from own practice, which can then be applied into practice. To discuss, what kind of new learning is possible from reflection, literature related three models of reflections is reviewed. John Dewey (Dewey, 1933, as cited in Rolfe, 2011, p.34), an eminent educationalist and philosopher claimed that…

theories is to make the individual aware of the constraint that they suffer from and give them the opportunity to see what their real interests are. Secondly, in scientific theories there is no identity between the theory and the object, making it easy to deferential between them. Critical theories, on the other hand, have an identity between the theory and the object described, given the fact that such theories are ‘reflective’ and ‘self-referential’. Thirdly, scientific theories depend upon…

5 Hour Energy versus RedBull With a fast-paced world, many people are struggling to keep up. Some people have trouble getting through the last bit of their day. Remedies to these problems would normally be solved by more sleep, healthier foods, and better exercise. Although all of those activities are important, they are not attainable at any given moment of the day. Energy drinks and shots are becoming more prevalent in pop culture as people are realizing their quick fix. Energy drinks are…

Fate and Fame in Viking Culture and Religion “Cattle die and kinsmen die,/ thyself too soon must die” (Havamal st. 75). This oft-heard quote from the Old Norse poem Havamal is merely one example of the deep sense of finality that pervades Viking literature and religious beliefs. Unlike many contemporary faiths, chiefly the Abrahamic religions, Norse mythology lacks an eternal afterlife. For most individuals, including both men and gods, death is absolute and immutable. Intrinsically, this…