The need for a critical theory of society

Abstract

The main aim of the article is to draw attention to the need for critical approaches to the broadly understood social reality in social sciences and humanities, especially in the times of “parameterization” and “bibliometrization” of the latter. A critical discourse that operates „across” well-instituted schools, approaches or paradigms is also of value to – let’s use Thomas Kuhn’s term – “normal science”, which when confronted with alternative concepts must be able to respond to them and/or reform its foundations. A critical concept of society is therefore a value not only from the perspective of an alternative vision of “social order”, but also from the purely pragmatic points of view of dominated social actors.