100 years of the Frankfurt School: a conversation with Martin Jay

Abstract

In 2023, the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt celebrates its 100th birthday. Since then, the “Frankfurt School” carried out a broad diagnosis of the permanence of capitalism and its contradictions. Until the mid-1960s, however, the English-speaking world was still relatively unaware of the important legacy of this experience. Largely responsible for reversing this situation, is published in 1973 the work Dialectic Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research 1923-1950, by Martin Jay. In this conversation with the author, we discuss the history and assumptions of critical theory, its relationship with other currents of thought and, finally, its contemporaneity and relevance for thinking about the peripheral Brazilian situation.

Keywords:
Frankfurt School; Critical theory; Martin Jay.