School of Humanities

The subject matter of this thesis is the concept of the political as it was presented by two distinguished thinkers of the Frankfurt School, Max Horkheimer and Jürgen Habermas. The thesis examines the political, as both thinkers criticized it, and attempts to analyze the political in three particular dimensions: to what extent it relates to the individual, to the sciences and mainly to society as well.
The thesis deals with most of Horkheimer’s and Habermas’ basic texts. Furthermore, many works of other thinkers of the Frankfurt School and further critique, presented by contemporary scientists, is also the scope of the present work. It was the primary aim of this research to investigate the importance of a conscious realization of the political by individuals and social collectivities and the influence of politics on the social.
In particular, the arguments of the research are divided into three sections: first, how the individual can form a politically conscious individuality that contributes to the transformation of the societal, second, how the sciences can intervene within society and bring forward political changes and, third, whether and with what means society can produce politics that promotes people’s social integration and social institutions’ evolution and advance.
The main concern of this thesis was to criticize whether it is social collectivities or political organizations or social institutions that can become the bearers of social and political innovations. It attempted to explicate the latter issue taking into consideration Horkheimer’s and Habermas’ argumentation on the same topics.

This book examines recent debates on the political dynamics of cosmopolitanism, particularly in its connection with European civil society and the public sphere. The aim of the volume is to trace to what extent cosmopolitanism defines the 'second modernity', with the latter concept referring to the potential for consensus, the creation of multiple political alternatives and the recognition of otherness. The book explores questions about democratic legitimacy and the formation of social and political institutions and presents empirical research on phenomena such as global violence. The volume is intended to constitute a cosmopolitan project in itself, comprising contributions from scholars with very diverse approaches. Together, these contributions provide a stimulating analysis of what cosmopolitanism can offer to socially and politically diverse twenty-first-century societies.

The book makes a critical comparison of fundamental trends in modern epistemology with the epistemological concerns of critical theory of the Frankfurt School. It comprises five chapters, which refer to phenomenology, structuralism and poststructuralism, modernism and postmodernism, systems’ theory and critical realism.
It follows the course of development of modern epistemology, considering basic conceptions such as dialectics, theory and practice in science, and the potential for a political epistemology based on the arguments of critical theory. It can certainly be used as a textbook because each chapter tallies with a major trend in modern epistemology, and provides a concrete analysis of the comparison it draws with the work of leading figures of the Frankfurt School such as Horkheimer, Adorno and Habermas.
The present volume addresses the reader of political theory, epistemology, social theory and it also raises key questions on methodology in science and research. Therefore, it can prove beneficial for students, researchers and academics that deal with issues of theory, practice, and method in science. The contents of the volume were meticulously constructed in order to be of practical use both for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and each chapter includes basic graphs  that condense the basic argument for each thematic circle on modern epistemology and methodology.
The book contains unpublished critique and information provided to the writer in recent interviews she conducted with Jürgen Habermas (providing analysis on systems theory), William Outhwaite and Stefan Müller-Doohm (both the latter clarified issues and contributed valuable information on critical realism and the Frankfurt School, respectively).