Abstract
<jats:p>Critical Theory from 1923 to the present day is mostly associated with the Frankfurt School and activities of the Institute for Social Research (German: Institut für Sozialforschung). Thinkers such as W. Benjamin, E. Bloch, and G. Scholem belong to the environment of the Institute. The Institute is usually associated with three generations of thinkers: the representatives of the first generation would be M. Horkheimer, T. Adorno, H. Marcuse; the representative of the second generation would be J. Habermas; the representative of the third generation would be A. Honneth. The classical premises of Critical Theory come from the works of Western Marxism – G. Lukács, then from the works of sociology – M. Weber, and from psychoanalysis – S. Freud. Their followers and interpreters also belong here as well as A. Schonberg’s atonal music (“atonal dialectic”) and G. Scholem’s mystical and at the same time apophatic anarchism. In this book the author emphasizes apophatic cultural philosophy and criticism, which is related to T. Adorno’s negative dialectic and S. Žižek’s Lacanian critique of thinking. Other thinkers, such as H. Arendt, J. Derrida, G. Agamben, J. Butler, R. Braidotti, S. Buck-Morss did not belong to the afore mentioned Institute, however, they do belong to Critical Theory. In Lithuania, Critical Theory is developed in one way or another by a whole set of philosophers: V. Rubavičius, Z. Norkus, A. Žukauskaitė, K. Kirtiklis. K. Pocius, T. Kavaliauskas and others. One of the main themes of Critical Theory is the analysis and critique of symbolical thinking and culture industries in the context of continental philosophy. [...]</jats:p>