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CRITICAL THEORY

Critical Theory is one of the theoretical perspectives derived from different thoughts such as

Aristotle's thought, Foucault, Gadamer, Hegel, Marx, Kant, Wittgenstein and other thoughts. These

different ideas are unified by a the same theoretical orientation or spirit that is the spirit to

emancipate.

This theory uses reflective methods by continuously criticizing existing social, political or

economic order or institutions, which tend not to be conducive to the attainment of freedom, justice

and equality. Critical theory is thick with the defense of the weak

The purpose of critical theory is to eliminate various forms of domination and encourage

freedom, justice and equality. This theory uses reflective methods by constantly criticizing existing

social, political or economic order or institutions, which tend not to be conducive to the attainment

of freedom, justice and equality.

Critical Theory is often also discussed as a separate paradigm and does not always deal with

the development and testing of theory, but also with the methodology, ideology, and social ethics

developed by the Frankfurt School (Institut fur Sozialforschung in Frankfurt, Germany). The Institute

was established to specifically examine Immanuel Kant's teachings from the perspective of Marxism.

Based on Marx's thought, critical social theory describes the relationship between the

structure and man dialectically. Although the structure conditions everyday experience, knowledge

of structures can help people change their social conditions. Critical social theory builds this

dialectical bridge by rejecting economic determinism.


Theories that are in critical theory are very diverse, such as :

1. Marxism, the original Marxian doctrine, as the basis that inspires the critical tradition

2. The Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School, which permeates the foundation of Marx's

teachings, but then develops it in various creative ways

3. Postmodernism, as a large stream, along with its branches, namely: Cultural Studies,

Poststructuralism, Postkolonialism.

4. Feminism, which is speci fi cally studying the "assortment of sex" that exists in various

social lives.

CRITICALIST

Criticalisti is A detective that attempts to use her or his work as a form of social or cultural

criticism. He/she accepts certain basic assumptions:

All thought is fundamentally constructed and mediated by socio-historically constituted power

relations;

Facts cannot be isolated from the domain of values or removed from some form of ideological

inscription;

The relationship between concept and object and between signifier and signified is never stable or

fixed and is often constructed and mediated by social relations of capitalist production and

consumption.
AIM OF CRITICAL RESEARCH :

- DECONSTRUCTION

Deconstruction is his rejection of logocentrism and phonocentrism which in whole gave rise

to binary opposition and other dichotomous hierarchical ways of thinking. Deconstruction comes

from the word de + construktio (latin). In general de means down, subtraction, or regardless of.

While the word Construktio means form, arrangement, arranging things, regulating things.

Deconstruction can be interpreted as a reduction or decrease in the intensity of the form that has

been prepared, as a form that has been standard.

Deconstruction aims to dismantle Western metaphysical traditions such as Husserlin's

phenomenology, ketsurean structuralism, French structuralism in general, Freudian psychoanalysis,

and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Deconstruction task, disclose the problematics of the discourses are

centered, on the other hand dismantle metaphysics by changing its boundaries conceptually. While

the purpose of the deconstruction method is to show the ineffectiveness of the absolute truth

preservation effort, and to expose the hidden agenda that contains many weaknesses and behind

the texts.

- POLITICAL & EMANCIPATION

Critical theories analyze the social structures that arise in threats that occur in society, such

as forms of domination, with a view to addressing those threats. The purpose of analyzing this is to

understand emancipation in the modern world. Critical theory places politics as a field related to the

achievement of a just life.

Its oriented towards emancipatory politics. Critical theory is one of three emancipatory in

international relations other than post-modern theory and feminism. Emancipation here means the

liberation of human thought from other shackling thinking, because the goal of critical theory itself is

to criticize what has been considered true, things that can not be resisted again, criticize the things
that have become the trend and the mainstream in society . The main contribution of this theory is

to reveal the political nature that is very influential in the formation of knowledge.

According to Richard Ashley (1981: 227) there are things that society should not know about

the political order that ultimately limits one's mobility, dominating relationships and conditions of

communication and misperception, eliminates the capacity of man to decide his own future

accordingly will and will because of political shackles. It also causes human limitations to be free,

self-determining, or the capacity to act. The critical theory here plays a role in eliminating both

physical and mental violence, to analyze the underlying social structure that produces such violence.

Critical theory defies the domination of the state in driving the lives of its people, because the people

are considered to have autonomy and freedom to determine and live their lives. Critical theory has

the assumption that previous perspectives gave rise to violence and injustice in all aspects of

community life, which in turn also gave birth to the form of a strong and weak state as a condition

that has been constructed.

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