Critical Theory
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
What does grammar tell us about the nature of our representations of the world? Do the linguistic categories that we use fundamentally shape the way we organize our understanding of the world? Do different cultures or different linguistic communities possess different "conceptual schemes"? Are different conceptual schemes incommensurable or can we translate from one to the other? These questions come up in the context of any discussion of social ontology -- what does the social realm consist of? In an earlier post we noticed that "thing" and "object" are ontological categories that perhaps don't work as well in the social realm.
Conceptual schemes and social ontology
Illuminations: The Critical Theory Website is a WWW research resource for those interested in the Critical Theory project. Firmly based in Frankfurt School thought, this site maintains a collection of articles, excerpts, and chapters from many contemporary writers of and about Critical Theory. Additional submissions from graduate students and others are also available, as are links to other websites and related sources. If you are interested in contributing to this continuos and growing project, created by Douglas Brown and Douglas Kellner, please contact Douglas Kellner at The University of Texas at Austin or Byron Hawk at The University of Texas at Arlington . We welcome and encourage your participation in this on going project, but in order to meet our own expectations and to adhere to academic, theoretical, and scholarly protocol all submissions must be addressed to one of the contributors listed above.
Illuminations
This page is somewhat narrower in focus than my Continental Philosophy Resources page. It focusses more directly on Critical Theory in the narrow sense. For broader cultural theory or contemporary European philosophy, go to one of these pages:
Critical Theory Resources
EServer: Cultural Studies and Critical Theory
Wecome to the EServer Cultural Studies and Critical Theory Collection. Cultural studies and critical theory combine sociology, literary theory, film/video studies, and cultural anthropology to study cultural phenomena in industrial societies. Cultural studies researchers often concentrate on how a particular phenomenon relates to matters of ideology, race, social class, and/or gender. Cultural studies concerns itself with the meaning and practices of everyday life. Cultural practices comprise the ways people do particular things (such as watching television, or eating out) in a given culture.