Critical theory was developed in the 1920s by thinkers associated with the Frankfurt School, including Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, and Walter Benjamin. They combined Marxist social theory with other approaches, including psychoanalysis, to analyze and critique the power structures of modern societies.

Some key ideas of critical theory:

• Critique of instrumental reason - Reason has become a means for efficiency, productivity and control rather than truth, freedom or human emancipation.

• Commodification and reification - In capitalist societies, social relations and cultural products are turned into commodities, and people see themselves and others as objects.

• Critique of the culture industry - Mass culture manipulates people into passivity and conformity to capitalism through entertainment and advertising.

• Critique of positivism - Positivist science claims to be objective and value-free but serves the interests of domination.

Later theorists like Habermas moved away from the pessimism of the early critical theorists and sought more emancipatory approaches. Feminist critical theorists examined patriarchal domination. Critical race theorists focused on racial power structures. Critical theory aims to uncover and critique the ways power and ideology limit human freedom in contemporary societies. It aspires to emancipate people from all forms of domination through social critique.

Here is a brief overview of some key thinkers and developments in critical theory:

• Max Horkheimer (1895-1973) - Director of the Frankfurt School, he initiated the shift from traditional theory to critical theory oriented toward critiquing and changing society.

• Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) - Leading member of the Frankfurt School, known for his critiques of popular culture and the culture industry. Co-author with Horkheimer of Dialectic of Enlightenment.

• Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) - Associated with the Frankfurt School, he blended Marxism with Freudian ideas. Critiqued capitalism's suppression of human instincts and advocated radical social change. Major work: One-Dimensional Man.

• Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) - Literary and cultural critic affiliated with the Frankfurt School. Combined Marxism with Jewish mysticism. Famous for his critique of mechanical reproduction in art.

• Frankfurt School in exile (1930s-1950s) - With the Nazi rise to power, the Frankfurt School members fled Germany for the United States in the 1930s. Produced influential analyses of fascism and authoritarianism (1950). 

• Habermas  (b.1929) and communicative rationality - Jürgen Habermas revived critical theory in the 1970s around the concept of communicative rationality and the ideal of the public sphere.

• Second generation critical theorists - Thinkers like Axel Honneth focused on recognition and identity, while Nancy Fraser added feminist and post-colonial perspectives.

• Critical race theory - Critiqued structural racism and white supremacy in US law and society, drawing on critical theory and radical black traditions.

Max Horkheimer (1895-1973):

• Born in Germany, studied philosophy at Frankfurt University where he later became director of the Institute for Social Research (1930-1958).

• Developed critical theory as a Marxist critique of positivism and ideology in capitalism. Published key essays in the 1930s such as "Traditional and Critical Theory".

• Fled to New York with the Institute for Social Research in 1934 during Nazi rule. Co-authored Dialectic of Enlightenment with Adorno in 1944. Returned to Frankfurt in 1950.

Theodor Adorno (1903-1969):

• Born in Germany, studied music and philosophy. Joined the Frankfurt School in 1938. Close collaborator of Horkheimer.

• Critiqued popular culture and the commodification of art in works like The Culture Industry (1944). Developed the concept of negative dialectics.

• Returned to Frankfurt with Horkheimer in 1950. Published influential texts such as Minima Moralia (1951) and Negative Dialectics (1966).

Walter Benjamin (1892-1940):

• German Jewish literary and cultural critic associated with the Frankfurt School. Combined Marxism with Jewish mysticism.

• Major works include Illuminations (1961) and The Arcades Project (published posthumously in 1982).

• Critiqued mechanical reproduction and loss of "aura" in art in his iconic 1936 essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction".

• Committed suicide while trying to flee Nazi-occupied France in 1940. His unfinished Arcades Project was later published.

Jurgen Habermas 

• • He offers a theory that combines rationality with a political process. 

  • His model of reason is procedural, rather than substantial: We cannot know "true reality," but we can create procedures that allow the prevailing of the best theories and practices. (See also Popper.) 

  • He develops a theory of communicative action. Rationality requires communication. Communication is action. (Speech acts: I apologize, you insult me, etc.) 

  • Subsequently, he suggests three types of rationality/action: instrumental, strategic, and communicative. 

  • Truthful communication requires four components: intelligibility, truthfulness, moral rightness, sincerity. 

  • Parallelism between individual and societal moral development (Piaget, Kohlberg)

  • Legitimation crisis: Politics is reduced to pragmatic delivery system of services. 

  • Capitalism colonizes the life-world

  • What is democracy in a positive sense? Deliberative, representative, direct, etc? 

  • Re-emergence of religion: Role of "enlightened religions" cannot be neglected. 

  • Critique: He is too consensus-oriented. 

Axel Honneth 

• • Recognition precedes cognition. stages of recognition: Love, right, solidarity. 

  • Types of rights: Political, social, civil, economic, cultural, etc. 

  • Reification is the result of forgetting recognition. 

  • This is a critical theory of rational behavior: It outlines the conditions necessary.