By : Hasina Islam

 The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the Enlightenment) is the era in Western philosophy and intellectual, scientific, and cultural life, centered upon the 18th century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source for legitimacy and authority.  Some historians also include the late 17th century, which is typically known as the Age of Reason or Age of Rationalism, as part of the Enlightenment; however, most historians consider the Age of Reason to be a prelude to the ideas of the Enlightenment. Modernity, by contrast, is used to refer to the period after The Enlightenment; albeit generally emphasizing social conditions rather than specific philosophies.

 Critical theory, in the sociological context, refers to a style of Marxist theory with a tendency to engage with non-Marxist influences.  Marxism is a political philosophy, as well as an economic and sociological worldview, which is based upon a materialist interpretation of history, a Marxist analysis and critique of capitalism, a theory of social change, and a view of human liberation derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

 Established on February 3 rd 1923, affiliated with University of Frankfurt  refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main  Critical Theory – has been expounded and interpreted in a variety of ways  Western Marxism : downplay the primacy of economic analysis, concerning themselves instead with abstract and philosophical areas of Marxism

 (September 11, 1903 – August 6, 1969)  a German-born international sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist.  He was a member of the Frankfurt School of social theory  He was greatly influenced by Marx, Nietzsche, and Hegel.  He studied socialism and was interested in human suffering and is also given credit for creating the term “ critical theory” in philosophy.

 (February 14, 1895 – July 7, 1973)  a German philosopher-sociologist, famous for his work in critical theory as a member of the 'Frankfurt School' of social research.  Work: a concern to show the relation between affect (especially suffering) and concepts (understood as action-guiding expressions of reason). In this, he responded critically to what he saw as the one-sidedness of both neo-Kantianism (with its focus on concepts) and Lebensphilosophie (with its focus on expression and world- disclosure).

 the most expressive philosophical manifestation of power and domination.  identity thinking as systematically and necessarily misrepresenting reality by means of the subsumption of specific phenomena under general, more abstract classificatory headings within which the phenomenal world is cognitively assembled.

 A specific form of rationality focusing on the most efficient or cost-effective means to achieve a specific end, but not in itself reflecting on the value of that end.  Freeing reason from the societal bonds which had constrained it was identified as the means for achieving human sovereignty over a world which was typically conceived of as the manifestation of some higher, divine authority.

 is a term in the social sciences used to describe the cultural rationalization and devaluation of mysticism apparent in modern society. The concept was originally coined by Max Weber to describe the character of modernized, bureaucratic, secularized Western society, where scientific understanding is more highly valued than belief, and where processes are oriented toward rational goals

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 NjUk NjUk  2:30-5:30  8:10-9:48

 Lack of interest in beauty  Devote little attention to visual attractions  Heroism/ moral excellence  Rejection of art as an embellishment and the ordinary as charming  Journal vs. Storytelling  Transformation of the Island from captivity to desired destination