CfP: Materialism in Critical Theory: Genealogies, Problems, Contemporary Relevance

At the beginning of 1936, Herbert Marcuse and Max Horkheimer were preparing an anthology intended to bring together the principal materialist doctrines in Western philosophy, from antiquity to the end of the nineteenth century, with particular attention to currents marginalized by traditional philosophical historiography. As Marcuse explained, the volume was to include sections devoted to “suffering and misery in history, the meaninglessness of the world, injustice and oppression, the critique of religion and morality, the connection between theory and historical practice, and the demand for a better organization of society.” Although the work was never published, it offers privileged insight into the place materialism occupied in the intellectual program of the Institute for Social Research.

 

Critical Theory made materialism one of the fundamental principles of its philosophical project. In the Institute’s early formulations under Horkheimer’s directorship, a materialist orientation defined interdisciplinary research as an attempt to interpret cultural, political, and social phenomena through their historical mediations. Materialism thus ceased to designate a philosophical doctrine or a general conception of the world and became instead a critical perspective from which to analyze social relations, forms of domination, and possibilities for emancipation in their specific historical configurations. From Horkheimer’s and Marcuse’s writings of the 1930s to Adorno’s insistence on the primacy of the object and his critiques of phenomenology and Heideggerian ontology, as well as Benjamin’s reflections on history, anthropology, and art, the contributions of Critical Theory are marked by a commitment to developing a materialist mode of thought pursued to its ultimate consequences. This materialism cannot simply be identified with any of the historical formulations that have borne that name. Rather, materialism is understood as an ongoing philosophical task. Carrying it out requires an immanent critique of idealism that, in the view of Critical Theory, persists in many of the theoretical positions of its time. It also requires confronting conceptions of materialism that remain bound to metaphysical assumptions or reproduce forms of immediacy incompatible with a critical understanding of social reality.

In his lectures on Philosophical Terminology, Adorno observes that the name materialism includes positions as diverse as ancient atomism, modern scientific thought, and Marx’s philosophy. Although they all share a certain “materialist aroma,” a “specific coloration,” materialism does not refer to the dogmatic assertion of matter as a metaphysical invariant, nor to the presentation of the external world as a rigid and immutable given, but rather to a critical stance toward any reconciliation with the existing world. In Critical Theory, this stance takes concrete form in the primacy of the concrete and of the object. Materialism is not a philosophy of origin but the self-consciousness of negative dialectics, of the non-identity between humanity and the material dimension of nature. It seeks to break the “blind compulsion of material conditions over human beings” and is inseparable from transformative praxis. The critical appropriation of Marxism played a decisive role in this reformulation, as did the incorporation of psychoanalysis and Freudian metapsychology, which broadened the materialist understanding of the constitution of the subject, desire, and the mechanisms of domination.

This issue aims to address the constitutive role of materialism in the collective project of Critical Theory and to analyze the different forms it assumes in its authors. Rather than examining the external relations between Critical Theory and other materialist currents, it seeks to explore the originality of its concept of materialism and the consequences of this reformulation for epistemology, social critique, the understanding of suffering, the relationship between theory and praxis, and the possibilities for emancipation in contemporary societies. The aim is to open a space for discussion of one of the fundamental concepts of the critical project, whose contemporary relevance continues to provide indispensable tools for understanding present forms of domination and possibilities for social transformation.

Contributions may therefore address the reconstruction of its conceptual genealogies, the tensions that shape its relationship with Marxist materialism or with contemporary materialist approaches, and the consequences of this understanding for forms of knowledge, the relationship with praxis, and forms of theoretical production. We invite contributions to “Materialism in Critical Theory: Genealogies, Problems, and Contemporary Relevance” that address the following topics:

 

• The concept of materialism in Critical Theory and its genealogies.
• Conceptions of materialism in the work of Critical Theory’s authors: Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse, Benjamin...
• Critical Theory’s materialism as an immanent critique of idealism.
• The critical relationship with Marx and the materialist tradition.
• The Primacy of the Object: toward a materialist epistemology.
• Critical Theory, materialism, and the concept of history.
• “Remembrance of nature in the subject”: materiality and corporeality.
• Materialism and psychoanalysis. Libido theory, the constitution of the subject, and social critique.
• “Suffering is physical”: Critical Theory and the analysis of ways of understanding social suffering.
• The place of pleasure in the materialism of Critical Theory: from “On the Critique of Hedonism” to “Egoism and the Freedom Movement.”
• The contemporary relevance of materialism in Critical Theory.
• Materialism, negativity, and dialectics.
• Materialism and transformative praxis.
• Later developments of materialism in Critical Theory.

 

Articles may be submitted in Spanish, Portuguese, or English.

Deadline for submissions: 1 May 2027.

Publication date: December 2027.