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Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet CDSMS CHRISTIAN FUCHS CRITICAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet. Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet Christian Fuchs Published by University of Westminster Press 101 Cavendish Street London W1W 6XH www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk Text © Christian Fuchs 2016 First published 2016 Series concept and cover design: Mina Bach (minabach.co.uk) Printed in the UK by Lightning Source Ltd. Print and digital versions typeset by Siliconchips Services Ltd. ISBN (Paperback): 978-1-911534-04-4 ISBN (PDF): 978-1-911534-05-1 ISBN (EPUB): 978-1-911534-06-8 ISBN (Kindle): 978-1-911534-07-5 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.16997/book1 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer- cial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View, California, 94041, USA. This license allows for copying and distributing the work, provid- ing author attribution is clearly stated, that you are not using the material for commercial purposes, and that modified versions are not distributed. The full text of this book has been peer-reviewed to ensure high academic standards. For full review policies, see: http://www.uwestminsterpress.co.uk/site/publish/ Suggested citation: Fuchs, Christian. 2016. Critical Theory of Communication. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.16997/book1. License: CC- BY-NC-ND 4.0 To read the free, open access version of this book online, visit http://dx.doi.org/10.16997/book1 or scan this QR code with your mobile device: Contents 1. Introduction: Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet 1 1.1. What is Critical Theory? 5 1.2. Critical Theory and Karl Marx 9 1.3. The Frankfurt School 22 1.4. Linking the Frankfurt School and other Critical Theories: Lev Vygotsky, Valentin Vološinov, Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, and Raymond Williams 26 1.5. The Frankfurt School and Martin Heidegger’s Philosophy 31 1.6. The Chapters in this Book 39 2. Georg Lukács as a Communications Scholar: Cultural and Digital Labour in the Context of Lukács’ Ontology of Social Being 47 2.1. Introduction 47 2.2. Work and Communication 52 2.3. Labour and Ideology 63 2.4. Conclusion 69 3. Theodor W. Adorno and the Critical Theory of Knowledge 75 3.1. Introduction 75 3.2. Adorno – A Media Pessimist? 76 3.3. Lukács and Adorno: The Theory of Art and Knowledge 83 3.4. The Dialectics of Knowledge 95 3.5. Conclusion 105 4. Herbert Marcuse and Social Media 111 4.1. Introduction 111 4.2. Herbert Marcuse and the Computer 114 4.3. Herbert Marcuse, Hegelian Dialectics and Social Media 116 4.4. Herbert Marcuse and Digital Labour on Social Media 124 4.5. Herbert Marcuse, Ideology and Social Media 131 4.6. Herbert Marcuse, the Logic of Essence and Social Media 137 4.7. Conclusion 145 iv Contents 5. The Internet, Social Media and Axel Honneth’s Interpretation of Georg Lukács’ Theory of Reification and Alienation 153 5.1. Introduction 153 5.2. Lukács’ Theory of Reification and Alienation 154 5.3. Axel Honneth’s Interpretation of Lukács’ Concept of Reification in the Critical Theory of Recognition 157 5.4. Towards a Materialist Theory of Morality as Theory of Co-operation and Social Co-Production 163 5.5. The Media, Alienation and Morality 169 5.6. Conclusion 173 6. Beyond Habermas: Rethinking Critical Theories of Communication 177 6.1. Introduction 177 6.2. Economic Reductionism: Alfred Sohn-Rethel 178 6.3. Cultural Reductionism: Jean Baudrillard 181 6.4. Labour/Communication Dualism: Jürgen Habermas 185 6.5. Towards a Dialectic of Labour and Communication: Lev Vygotsky, Valentin Vološinov, Ferruccio Rossi-Landi, Raymond Williams 189 6.6. Towards a Dialectical Critical Theory of Communication 193 7. Conclusion 207 7.1. The Starting Point: Karl Marx 207 7.2. Georg Lukács: Teleological Positing 208 7.3. Theodor W. Adorno: The Dialectics of Knowledge 210 7.4. Herbert Marcuse: The Meta-Dialectic and the Dialectical Logic of Essence 211 7.5. Axel Honneth Revisits Lukács’ History and Class Consciousness: The Critical Theory of Recognition, Alienation and Reification 213 7.6. Beyond Jürgen Habermas’ Critical Theory of Communication 214 7.7. Towards a Dialectical Critical Theory of Communication 215 Index 221 CHAPTER 1 Introduction: Critical Theory of Communication: New Readings of Lukács, Adorno, Marcuse, Honneth and Habermas in the Age of the Internet The task of this book is to provide new readings about how some specific works of authors related to the Frankfurt School matter for critically understanding communication today. It presents five essays that review aspects of the works of Georg Lukács, Theodor W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Axel Honneth and Jürgen Habermas and applies these ideas for grounding foundations of a criti- cal theory of communication in the age of the Internet and social media. Each chapter is dedicated to revisiting specific ideas of one of these thinkers. The book is intended as a reader on aspects of cultural Marxism in the digital age. The chapters can also be read independently. The approach this book takes is that it a) discusses elements of specific criti- cal theories and b) relates them to the topics of communication and the Inter- net. It thereby wants to contribute to a renewal and sublation of the critical theory of communication as a critical theory of society. In this introduction, I first discuss elements of a critical theory of society (section 1.1). Second, I point out the importance of Karl Marx’s works for criti- cal theory (section 1.2). Third, I provide some background on the Frankfurt School (section 1.3). Fourth, I argue that for a critical theory of communication it is a feasible approach to link the works of Frankfurt School to other critical cultural and social theories (section 1.4). Fifth, I comment on the relationship of the Frankfurt School and Heidegger (section 1.5). Finally, I provide an over- view of this book’s chapters (section 1.6). How to cite this book chapter: Fuchs, Christian. 2016. Critical Theory of Communication. Pp. 1–46. London: Uni- versity of Westminster Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.16997/book1.a. License: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 2 Critical Theory of Communication The Frankfurt School is one of the traditions in Marxist theory that has drawn our attention to the importance of studying culture. It does so with profound engagements with ideology, the culture industry and communica- tion. In the twenty-first century, digital culture and digital communication have become important phenomena. It is therefore an interesting task to revisit some of the writings of Frankfurt School thinkers in the light of these develop- ments. This book is not an introduction to critical theory, a textbook or a his- torical account. Rather, it focuses on some selected key areas of critical theory as building blocks for the foundations of a critical theory of communication that goes beyond Habermas. Werner Bonefeld, Richard Gunn and Kosmas Psychopedis (1992) argue in the introduction to the first volume of the three-part collected volumeOpen Marxism, that with the rise of neoliberalism and postmodern thought, it became fashionable in the 1980s to turn against Marxism and criticise it as outdated, old-fashioned, reductionist, deterministic, and a closed system of thought. They question this tendency and argue for open Marxism as a meth- odological approach. Open Marxism sees the ‘openness of Marxist categories themselves’ (Bonefeld, Gunn and Psychopedis, 1992, xi). “Closed Marxism” is Marxism which does either or both of two inter- related things: it accepts the horizons of a given world as its own theo- retical horizon and/or it announces a determinism which is causalist or teleological as the case may be (xii). They mention Adorno and Lukács as two of the figures in the tradition of open Marxism (Bonefeld, Gunn and Psychopedis, 1992, xii). The Open Marxism project does not aim to reconstruct Marx’s thought, in the sense of presenting an interpretation which masquerades as the sole ‘correct’ one. Such an approach would not be helpful, for it would presuppose the possibility of a uniform and finished interpretation of Marx’s work (Bonefeld, Gunn, Holloway and Psychopedis 1995, 1). Comparable to Bonefeld, Gunn, Holloway and Psychopedis, Wolfgang Fritz Haug (1985) argues for plural Marxism, a project that is based on the dialectic of unity and diversity (Haug 1985, 12). Marxism does not simply exist, but is becoming. Marxism can only exist as process. Marxism’s truth cannot be organised in a number of phrases, but only in the process of the inconclusive engagement of differences with each other. […] Marxism is not a given, there are Marxisms. Marx- ism exists in the plural. […] [Marxism requires] convergence in diver- gence. (Haug 1985, 20) Introduction: Critical Theory of Communication 3 In contemporary society, we have witnessed a certain revitalised interest in Marx, the critique of class and capitalism, and socialism. The basic trigger of this interest was the global economic crisis. In this situation, we need an open cultural Marxism in three respects. If one looks at contemporary Marxist dis- cussions, publications and conferences, then issues relating to communication and culture are often treated as having minor, secondary importance and as having mere superstructural character. At the same time, it is, however, difficult to deny the significant role of cultural labour and communications in contem- porary society.
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