Centerfield

What do you mean by "critical theory?"

I have a masters in critical thinking, but I don't think that's what you're talking about. Because critical thinking as a disicipline is not at all what I think of as leftist.

The critical-thinking I know and studied is very bootstrapped into the real world and stresses analysis that leads directly to decision-making within a reasonable time frame, as opposed to endless analysis and theorizing.

IMO the idea of critical theory has been appropriated by the left and, in my mind, has come to mean an almost mindless criticism of American society. I think there should be a place in centrism or any other movement for analysis that questions the assumptions and conventional wisdom of either the right or the left. But I think it would be more valuable if critical theory was premised on a fundamentally positive view of the society--while recognizing its flaws--rather than the fundamentally negative view that I think permeates critical theory as it currently exists. As it is now, critical theory is so unremittingly hostile to the society that, however compelling the analysis, it has little impact except on the far left.

Critical Theory branches over a wide spectrum of claims and analysis. To try and distill it down, I'd define quote someone (I forget who) who said "Critical Theory takes society's unexamined assumptions and subjects them to radical criticism from a given set of values." So, for example, Catherine MacKinnon takes our assumption that people have a right to privacy, and criticizes it from the perspective of women (see Mackinnon, Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law; Mackinnon, "Reflections on Sexual Equality Under Law." 100 Yale L.J. 1281 (March, 1991)). Stephen Feldman takes the assumption that Sep. of Church and State protects religious minorities, and criticizes it from the perspective of Jews (Feldman, "Please Don't Wish Me a Merry Christmas: A Critical History of the Separation of Church and State.").

Critical Theory has to be "negative" to an extent because it is, well, critical; it makes a critique. Being a method of criticism, critical theory is not complete by itself; it doesn't provide a model for how to make society just, it only reveals how it currently isn't. Critical theory explicitly rejects metatheories that seek to explain the world or that purport to provide the "ultimate answer" to what makes society just. The good news is that that is a pragmatic philosophy that makes sense for a non-partisan organization--in theory, crits should advocate would works and makes sense, not beholden to particular ideologies. The bad news is that since crits aren't beholden to anything, they can advocate everything--and they tend to use it to advocate solely the most extreme leftist ideologies [see Michael McConnell, Michael W. McConnell, "God is Dead and We Have Killed Him!": Freedom of Religion in the Post-Modern Age, 1993 B.Y.U. L. Rev. 163, 186-87]. But again, that is their problem--WE don't have to act that way.

Dave,

I agree with much of what you say and you could conceivably have a right-wing critical theory (and, in some ways you do if you consider the critique of our "godless, immoral society by many religious people). But I don't think it necessarily has to be negative in the sense that its conclusions always argue for the basic injustice of society. You could have a critical theory that critiques democracy, for example, but still concludes that, on balance, it's better than other alternatives. You probably know more about this than me, but I somewhat disagree with your statement that critical theory does not purport to offer solutions. I think, in fact, that critical theory, as developed by the left, always has an implicit agenda for radical social change, simply by undermining established values. Obviously, of course, as you say, we don't have to adopt that standard.

I cannot see how one could conclude that only the left practices critical theory, is critical or is just being negative in general.

The right does all these things in essentially the same proportion. Government is too big, taxes are too high, religion is too suppressed, culture is too coarse, the media is too liberal, public schools are too inflexible, unions are too likely to stifle growth.

Of course, I only got Cs in philosophy.

From a strictly historical perspective, what is formally called Critical Theory was started by left-wing academics. I'm not saying this to be perjorative; it's just a fact. I agree, Tim, that critical theory doesn't have to be left-wing, but Critical Theory is, by definition, left-wing.

And Critical Theory is specifically designed to question to underlying power relationships behind societal institutions. For example, an off-shoot of Critical Theory is Critical Legal Studies, which argues that various legal doctrines and theories are simply reflections of the interests of various powerful groups in society. Again, I'm not saying this in a perjorative way (although I don't think much of the CLS movement), but just stating how it has historically evolved.

Obviously, speaking more generically, everyone practices critical theory to one extent or another.

In my younger, radical and leftist days, I was enamored of critical theory; meaning the Frankfurt school of independent Hegelian Marxists Horkheimer, Adorno, Marcuse, et al.
Their limitation, however, was a diehard adherance to the Marxist-leftist paradigm. As a centrist, I can now appreciate the broader stream of thought of which this kind of critical theory was derivative. Dialectical and dialogical thought, psychoanalysis,
hermeneutics, social constructivism and
even Rorytist pragmatism or Eric Fromm's personalist social psychology, phenemenology, intersubjectivity, etc. all are rich and useful perspectives for a sane politics and stem from the same creative legacy of critical philosophic thought. The key is ideas rather than ideology,
thought rather than blind partisanship; and critical thinking
vs. authoritarianisms of all stripes.

If you're a centrist now, you're really not practicing "critical theory," you're practicing critical thinking . It's an actual academic discipline, though it is interdisciplinary in nature.

If any of you has any interest, visit criticalthinking.org.