Michael J. Thompson's Twilight of the Self

Michael J. Thompson’s Twilight of the Self is a highly sophisticated theoretical analysis of the present day, deeply informed by the first generation of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. Thompson reawakens the antecedents and the legacies of Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment and updates them for the twenty-first century. The book demands much…

Introduction: The Problem of the Cybernetic Society Michael Thompson, over the past ten or so years, has created a considerable corpus of significant work which has established him as a leading next generation critical theorist. In The Domestication of Critical Theory, Thompson offers a critique of Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth for abandoning a Marxist…

Introduction: Against Positivism and Relativism and For an Objective Basis of Critique Michael J. Thompson’s Twilight of the Self: The Decline of the Individual in Late Capitalism is a book of fundamental importance. It stands within the Frankfurt School critical theory tradition, which it continues, critiques, corrects, and resets on a truly productive path. Written…

I I first want to thank the contributors to this symposium on my book, Twilight of the Self: The Decline of the Individual in Late Capitalism organized by Prof. Lauren Langman for taking the time to read my work and engage it with such depth and critical scrutiny. There is no higher honor in scholarly…