Critical theory

Philosophy Go Premium The JC looks deep into the well. Or abyss. Click ᐅ to expand: Philosophy Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Requests? Insults? We’d love to 📧 hear from you. Sign up for our newsletter.

Critical theory
/ˈkrɪtɪkəl/ /ˈθɪəri/ (n.)
(Sociology) A catch-all phrase designed to pin down an intellectual movement which, above all other priorities, as a horror of being pinned down, since what can be pinned down can be analysed and exposed. Critical theory, in this context, is allegedly “third-wave” post-modernism: (originally race, law or gender but now has forked into whatever happens to be the cause célébre du jour); social justice theory; wokeness; general snowflakery.

To be clear: the JC lines up with the libtards here: the optimal society is a pluralistic, tolerant one, maximally permissive of the non-aggressive interests of those at the margins and which, all other things being equal, defends those interests in cases of conflict with the majority.

But this isn’t to say there aren’t thoroughly unscrupulous people doing thoroughly unscrupulous things in the name of social justice.

See also

• Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race Gender and Identity
• The Madness of Crowds