Gouldner’s critical theory of language: Recovery and creation of alternative definitions of reality

Abstract

Our goal in this article is to systematize the "critical theory of language" inspired by the late work of the sociologist Alvin Gouldner. Especially, in his texts The Crisis of Western Sociology of 1970, Renewal and Critique of Current Sociology of 1973, The Dialectic of Ideology and Technology of 1976, The Two Marxisms of 1980, and Against Fragmentation of 1981. Our methodology will be theoretical analysis, thanks to which we will arrive at the conclusion that critical theory in its Gouldnerian variant is mainly inspired by the traditions of Romanticism and Hermeneutics, Marxism and Psychoanalysis, and with affinities with the Frankfurt School and the New Left. Likewise, the central concepts of his critical theory of language will be those such as public debate, rationality, reflexivity, dialogue, and the antinomic distinctions between sources and media of communication, between dominant and dominated definitions of reality, and between direct and mediated communication.