La Hartmut Rosa’s new Critical Theory in light of the early Frankfurt School

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to critically analyse the last stages of Hartmut Rosa’s critical theory. I argue that Rosa links again the critical theory with stages previous to Habermas’ linguistic turn, namely. In order to analyse this derives of the new critical theory I structure my argumentation in four steps. First, I present an overview of the history of the Frankfurt School, showing the different transits operated within it. Secondly, I study the fundamental features of Rosa’s theory of social acceleration. Third, I try to explain the two key concepts of the last stage of Rosa’s critical theory, namely the concepts of "resonance" and "unavailability". Finally, I show two connections between this last stage and some theses defended by Adorno and Horkheimer from the 1940s.