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The Age of Enlightenment and Critical Theory

The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the Scientific Revolution. Earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon and René Descartes. Some of the major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Denis Diderot, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, John Locke, Montesquieu, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, Hugo Grotius, Baruch Spinoza, and Voltaire.

Enlightenment thought was profoundly influential in the political realm. European rulers such as Catherine II of Russia, Joseph II of Austria, and Frederick II of Prussia tried to apply Enlightenment thought to religious and political tolerance, known as enlightened absolutism. Many of the significant political and intellectual figures behind the American Revolution associated themselves closely with the Enlightenment: Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia; Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison incorporated these ideals into the United States Constitution during its framing in 1787. The ideas of the Enlightenment also played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on “Enlightenment” is an excellent explanation and introduction to the main tendencies of Enlightenment thought.

Critical Theory refers specifically to a school of thought practiced by the Frankfurt School theoreticians Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, and Max Horkheimer. Horkheimer described a theory as critical insofar as it seeks "to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them. Although a product of modernism, and although many of the progenitors of critical theory were skeptical of postmodernism, critical theory is one of the major components of both modern and postmodern thought, and it is widely applied in the humanities and social sciences today.

Critical theory is an approach to social philosophy that focuses on reflective assessment and critique of society and culture in order to reveal and challenge power structures. Critical Theory argues that social problems stem more from social structures and cultural assumptions than from individuals. It argues that ideology is the principal obstacle to human liberation. When Critical Theory was first introduced, it was considered a form of social science, but recently some have argued that it should fall under a different category.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy distinguishes between Critical Theory (capitalized) as the product of several generations of German philosophers and social theorists of the Frankfurt School and a broader sense of any philosophical approach that seeks emancipation for human beings. It actively works to change society in accordance with human needs (usually called "critical theory", without capitalization). Philosophical approaches within this broader definition include feminism, critical race theory, and forms of postcolonialism.

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on “Critical Theory” is an excellent explanation and introduction to the main thrusts of Critical Theory thought.

The Age of Enlightenment led to the ascension of humankind’s Natural Rights, which resulted in the "Freedoms, Liberties, Equalities, and Equal Justice for All" we have in America. Critical Theory is a danger to the principles of the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, on which the American republic was founded. Critical Theory philosophy, a philosophy that helped spawn totalitarian ideologies in the 20th century, such as Russian Marxism, German Nazism, Italian Fascism, and Japanese Imperialism, which taught that all human relationships are relationships of power between an oppressor class and an oppressed class. For the Russian Marxists, the bourgeoisie were the oppressors. For the German Nazis, the Jews were the oppressors. For Italian Fascists, the Industrialists were the oppressors. For Imperial Japan, America was an oppressor. This thinking led to devastating oppression of the people within these countries when civilian unrest replaced the governments of these countries. Coupled with German, Italian, and Japanese racial superiority opinions, it resulted in the murder of millions of people across the world. And today, in 21st century America, Critical Race Theory (a branch of Critical Theory) teaches that Whites are the oppressors.

Whenever people feel oppressed, it often results in civil unrest or civil war. Most of these historical cases result in greater oppression by the oppressors, or the overthrow of the oppressors that are then replaced with greater oppressors. The main exception was the American Revolution, which resulted in greater Liberties and Freedoms for the oppressed. This is one of the reasons why America is an exceptional nation.

The French Revolution, The Communist Revolution in Russian, The Nazism Revolution in Germany, The Fascist Revolution in Italy, The Communist Revolution in China, and various revolutions in Central and South America, as well as in Asia, are all examples of an overthrow of the oppressors which were then replaced with greater oppressors.

Critical Theory sees the world in terms of us versus them and pits the two against each other. Critical Theorists often have an attitude of self-righteousness and correctness, which is common amongst academics, especially the more esoteric academic subjects. Just as "Progressives/Leftists" and "Democrat Party Leaders" believe that they are more intelligent, better educated, and morally superior, they are, of course, always correct, so do Critical Theorists believe they are always correct. Perhaps this explains the commonalities between the social policies of Progressives/Leftists and Democrat Party Leaders and the Critical Theorist. The main commonality is the desirability of changing American society, to be achieved by pitting groups of Americans against each other that occurs more fervently today.

The only good of Critical Theory is that it forces other social theorists to more deeply examine their theories to come to a more reasonable and more accurate conclusion. Critical Theory provides no real-world solutions to the problems it addresses but often provides real-world conflicts between people. Therefore, when a word is placed between the words “Critical’ and ‘Theory’ (such as Critical Race Theory), you can safely presume that the term is hogwash.