"Critical theory is distinguished from the 'traditional' sciences by its reflexive character and its practical intent: it seeks not merely to understand or explain, but to transform. Its ultimate goal is a society of self-determining individuals who have achieved freedom from all forms of systemic distortion and illegitimate domination through the medium of unconstrained communication."
For the thinking ego and its experience, conscience that "fills a man full obstacles" is a side effect. No matter what thought-trains the thinking ego thinks through, the self that we all are must take care not to do anything that would make it impossible for the two-in-ne to be friends and live in harmony. This is what Spinoza meant by the term "aquiescence in one's self" (acquiescentia in seipso): "It can spring out of reason [reasoning]. and this contentment is the greatest joy possible." Its criterion for action will not be the usual rules, recognized by multitudes and agreed upon by society, but whether I shall be able to live with myself in peace when the time has come to think about my deeds and words. Conscience is the anticipation of the fellow who awaits you if and when you come home. p.191
A right of sovereignty and a mechanics of discipline. It is, I think, between these two limits that power is exercised. The two limits are, however, of such a kind and so heterogeneous that we can never reduce one to the other. In modern societies, power is exercised through, on the basis of, and in the very play of the heterogeneity between a public right of sovereignty and a polymorphous mechanics of discipline.
"To understand a text is not to rejoin the author, but to move in the direction of his work, to project oneself before it, to follow the path of the world it opens up."
It is only as an experience of turning back that we shall accept that for man there are no alternatives to the Earth, just as for reason there are no alternatives to human reason. p. 685
"The Athenian does not question the divine origin of the Cretan and Spartan laws; he accepts it on the authority of his interlocutors. But he immediately asks for the reason or the end for which those laws were established... He asks, in Socratic fashion, what the lawgiver had in mind in establishing the laws." — Chapter I, p. 4
"The metaphoric 'is' at once signifies both 'is not' and 'is like.'"
"Under 'democracy,' the conditions under which all legitimate interests can be fulfilled by way of realizing the fundamental interest in self-determination and participation are no longer understood. It is now only a key for the distribution of rewards conforming to the system, that is, a regulator for the satisfaction of private interests. This democracy makes possible prosperity without freedom."
Dans de nombreux rituels, le sacrifice se présente de deux façons opposées, tantot comme une chose tres sainte dont on ne saurait s'abstenir sans negligence grave, tantot au contraire comme une espece de crime qu'on ne saurait commettre sans s'exposer a des risques également tres graves. p.9