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==Critical theory (social theory)==

The first meaning of the term ''critical theory'' was that defined by [[Max Horkheimer]] of the [[Frankfurt School]] of social science in his 1937 essay ''Traditional and Critical Theory'' : critical theory is social theory oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole, in contrast to traditional theory oriented only to understanding or explaining it. Horkheimer wanted to distinguish critical theory as a radical, emancipatory form of [[Marxian]] theory both from the model of science put forward by [[logical positivism]] and from what he and his colleagues perceived as the covert positivism and authoritarianism of orthodox Marxism and Communism. It is also central to this notion that critical social theory be directed at the totality of society in its historical specificity, i.e. in the way it had come to be configured at a specific point in time, and that it integrates all of the major social science theories that will help grasp the major dimensions of society, including especially economics, sociology, history, political science, anthropology, and psychology. Although this conception of critical theory originated with the Frankfurt School, it also prevails among some other recent social scientists, such as [[Pierre Bourdieu]], [[Louis Althusser]] and arguably [[Michel Foucault]] and certain [[feminist]] theorists and social scientists.

* [http://www.nplusonemag.com/theory.html "Death is Not the End"] [[N+1]] magazine's short history of academic critical theory.