Social pathology: the ‘explosive charge’ of critical theory

There are already some excellent books which criticise the rapid ‘domestication’ of critical theory. Chief amongst these are works by Michael J. Thompson (2016) and Stathis Kouvelakis (2019). While I share many of the political and philosophical sympathies of these leading authors, in this book I provide a change of focus from the existing critical literature. My target is the impact Axel Honneth’s work has had on the Frankfurt School’s social-theoretical foundations, and, in particular, the impact the critical theory of recognition has had on the framing of ‘social pathology’. Frankfurt School scholarship can seem imposing to the uninitiated as