Answer to Question #252942 in Philosophy for Norah Tembe

Question

Discuss Critical theory in philosophy of education

Answer 1

Critical theory is any 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 focuses on the oppression of the individual, the group, and society by self-imposed or externally imposed influences. Critical Theory also 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 the theory as critical extent as it seeks to free human beings from the situations that enslave them.

Critical Theory has two general meanings, the narrow definition, which defines to the origination of the theory, and a broad definition, which defines to its application to various philosophies. As originally hypothesized, Critical Theory maintains that all knowledge is biased, since a teacher’s or a student’s opinion is affected by social and personal history around the subject.

Critical theory is an individual responsibility and not just the responsibility of researchers who stand above the crowd and inform non-researchers about how and what reality is. Under the critical viewpoint, people use their own understandings as well as the work of researchers to understand and, ultimately, change reality.