Philosophical elements of a theory of society, 1964

Editors' ForewordLECTURE 1Philosophy and sociology as scientific disciplines - Reflection and theory - Tasks of the lecture - Provisional conception of a theory of society - The crisis of theoretical thought
 positivism - Weber's relationship to theory - Weber's concept of `understanding' - Weber's concept of `rationality' - Bureaucracy and domination - Dialectics
 theoretical aspects of atheoretical thinkingLECTURE 2Facts and theory - Concretion and overcoming of the factual - Critique of the classificatory logic of positivism - The relationship between natural sciences and social sciences, nature and society - The anti-theoretical character of sociology - Hypothesis formulation and insight - The necessity of reflection
 Darmstadt community studies - Theory formation presupposes a consideration of discontinuity
 The status of facts within the complexion of society as a wholeLECTURE 3Ibsen's Hedda Gabler
 Registering facts and productive imagination - The concept of tendency - Capitalist calculus - The exchange relationship - Tendency and prophecy
 The new as the core of theory - The non-identical in theory - Theory and dynamics of society -Tendency and totality - Social reality and theoryLECTURE 4Tendency and trend - Dependence of theory on its object
 Distrust towards theory formation - Theory as a unified system of society
 Liberalism, Marxism, German Idealism - System as tendency - Modifications of `market society' as results of class struggles - Monopolizing tendency of capital
 State interventionism as a crisis outlet - Integration of the proletariatLECTURE 5Announcement of a lecture by Lucien Goldmann on `Marxism and contemporary society' - Problems of theory formation
 `Work Climate' study - The system-immanence of the proletariat - Class consciousness and integration - Ideology and experience: The phenomenon of personalization - Insight into society in theoretical thought - System-immanent consciousness - Politics as an aspect of ideology - The meaning of changes in reality and consciousness
 concretismLECTURE 6The difficulty of theory formation - Concretism as an expression of powerlessness
 `Levelled middle-class society' - Exchange value as a source of pleasure - The meaning of concretism for labour organizations - The transformation of Marxian theory into state religion - Abstractism - Accusation of the bourgeoisification of the proletariat - Everyday class struggleLECTURE 7Everyday class struggle - The politics of small steps - The dual character of the workers' realism
 The consequences of mechanization - The dominance of conditions - Wage satisfaction - Subjectivism in sociological research - Communication research
 The semblance of freedom in the exchange principle - Subjective experiences of the semblance of levelling - Supply and demand of labourLECTURE 8The thin crust of integrated society - Nuanced thinking - The shift of social pressure - Changes in nominalism and epistemology - Improvements within the work process - Loss of unambiguity
 Social theory between dogmatic ossification and naive faith in facts - Semblance of integration and increasing socialization - Disintegration
 Rationalization and the reality principle - The function of the system
 Antagonism of power and powerlessness: Disintegration through growing integration - Integration and powerlessness - False identity of the general and the particularLECTURE 9The relationship between economy and power - The negative unity of society in general unfreedom - The culture industry and analysis of ideologies - Positivism as a manifestation of ideology - The concept of the `human being' and the `jargon of authenticity'
 ideology critique and language critique - The mythologization of antagonisms in socialist countries - The dialectic and rupture of theory and experience - Loss of experience - Theory as system and non-system
 The irrationality and rationality of society
 Weber's theory of scienceLECTURE 10Contradictory object and contradiction-free theory
 Rationality and irrationality - Changes in the concept of reason - The whole, in its rationality, is irrational - Dialectical theory - Critique of undialectical thought - Critique of unified sociology and the fetishization of science - The historical change in the function of science
 Openness as a key concept - Functional change in the concept of science: Leibniz, Fichte, Hegel, Kant - The equation of science with truth - The danger of intuitionism
 The relationship between method and matter - Announcement of the next topic: Critique of Parsons's methodologyLECTURE 11Critique of the ideal of the scientific method - Descartes
 The postulation of method and the structure of the matter - Parsons's unified conceptual system - The relationship between psychology and sociology: Karen Horney, Erich Fromm - Freud: Sociology as applied psychology
 The concept of role - Critique of the psychological reduction of social processes: Marx, Durkheim - Subject and socialization in Weber's `understanding' sociology - The antagonistic relationship between the individual and society - The necessity of a critical reflection on methodLECTURE 12Fetishization of methodology instead of insight into the matter - Method I
 Spontaneity of thought - Formal and transcendental logic in Kant
 The character of reason - Method II
 Dialectical philosophy and self-determination - Didactics
 The complexity of capitalism and the Marxian method - Marx's toying with dialectics - The disastrous consequence of the primacy of method - Two meanings of the concept of methodLECTURE 13The dispute between positivist and critical thinking - Scientific fetishism and the acquisition of naivete - Perfectionism of method and irrelevance of results - Weber: Material and spirit collecting - Instrumentalization of reason - The defamation of spirit - Self-examination of thought in the material - Causes of scientific fetishism - Ego weakness as a subjective reason for scientific fetishism - On the `fear of freedom'
 The employee mentality - Theory and systemLECTURE 14The ideal of system in rationalism: Reduction of the many to the one - Critique of systems that proceed from the subject: Hegel, Erdmann
 Spinoza and Leibniz - The empiricist critique of rationalism - System frenzy and the disintegrated cosmos - The problem of the concept of system in Kant's idealism - Nietzsche and Kierkegaard
 Rejection of system - On dogmatic attitudes - Systems regress to modes of representation - Systematic thinking and the administered world
 Equation of theory and system in Parsons - Focus on the essenceLECTURE 15Inspiration and spontaneity - The reified consciousness - Kant: The worldly and scholastic concepts of philosophy
 Unregulated experience - Empiricism as a corrective - The relationship between knowledge and democracy
 Experimental situations - Realism and power relations
 Objectivity and subjectivityLECTURE 16Elements of a theory of society - `Transcendental reflection' - The classes and the production process - The irrationality of the whole and particular rationality in the administered world - The armament apparatus - Class character and unfreedom - `Pluralism' as a phenomenon of concealment - Changes in the sphere of competition and consumption - The intertwinement of rationality and irrationality in the processes of concentration and disintegrationLECTURE 17Rationality and irrationality - Power relations and control over production
 Bureaucracy and domination
 Sociological concept formation - Personalized epiphenomena and fascism - The independence of bureaucracy in Russia - Armament and overall social structure - The position of ideology today: De-ideologization
 The consumer world - The `consciousness industry': The change in ideology and its contemporary production - The technological veil - Language critique and reified consciousness - CritiqueEditors' NotesIndex