Critical Theory and The Frankfurt School: The Neo-Marxist Roots of WOKE

In this episode of Liberty Curious, Kate Wand invited Phil Magness to discuss the origins of critical theory, which is a neo-Marxist school of thought born in the Frankfurt School in 1923.

Phil is the F.A Hayek Chair in Economics and Economic History at AIER, and a prolific researcher on these kinds of ideas. They discuss the history of critical theory, and how it has proliferated through academia and into our culture, manifesting itself as what we commonly refer to as Woke ideology.

Use these shortcuts to navigate the topics presented in the video:

0:00 – intro
1:50 – what is Critical Theory?
5:04 – Offshoot of Marxism
11:07 – Frankfurt School
19:20 – Marxism Splits
23:30 – from Economics to Sociology
27:45 – Incoherence
29:28 – Coming to America
35:26 – Critical Theory vs. Traditional Theory
38:09 – The Ambitions of Critical Theorists
45:30 – Last thoughts
50:30 – Bonus question: Utopia

You can enjoy all AIER’s excellent podcasts at aier.org/podcasts.