The most broad and general description of critical theory (one of the most important movements in social and political philosophy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries) is that it is a synthesis of Marxist social critique and Freudian psychoanalysis with traces of German idealism. Arnold L. Farr argues that the demand for social change by critical theorists is rooted in a desire for the completion of the U.S. democratic experiment. There is too much exploitation, surplus repression, alienation, dehumanization, oppression, and gross economic inequality in the United States for us to believe that we have achieved a complete or finished democracy. Herbert Marcuse’s form of critical theory provides us with important theoretical tools for addressing the ways in which our attempt to create a democratic society based on fairness, justice, and equality has been derailed.

While Marcuse experienced tremendous popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, his popularity has since waned in academic circles as well as in public political discourse. Critical Theory and Democratic Vision is an attempt to rescue from obscurity some of Marcuse’s most helpful insights with respect to progressive, democratic social change. This book’s unique feature is the attempt to put Marcuse in dialogue with what Farr calls recent liberation philosophies such as feminism and African-American philosophy. All of these forms of philosophy are driven by a democratic impulse whereby we realize that there are many social groups that have been excluded from the democratic decision-making process.

Arnold L. Farr is associate professor of philosophy and director of the Africana Studies Program at Saint Joseph's Univeristy.