For similar reasons, I argue, nothing can function as a normative foundation for a critical social theory, because any such normative foundation would have to both stand in no need of normative justification but also justify normative social criticism. The conclusion is often that no given can function in that way, because the given, which supposedly does not require justification, is therefore necessarily unable to justify knowledge. I make my main argument by way of an analogy: theories of knowledge have wrestled with the question of whether a "given"' could act as a certain foundation for knowledge. Then, I describe various theories of normative foundations and the criticisms that such theories have faced, such as ethno-and andro-centrism, imperialism, and the failure to fulfill their own aims. I discuss how and why the apparent problem arose, particularly within the Frankfurt School. I argue that the problem of normative foundations is insoluble. I suggest that this can best be explained by using the theory of the space of reasons, which helps to show how rational human practices shape social and economic institutions, and how our form of rationality is in turn shaped by those practices and institutions. This subject matter does exist: it is the nature of rationality within capitalism. Philosophers must describe something that is peculiar to capitalism, in philosophical terms, which has not been explained by sociological, economic, or psychological means. Why is this? And what could philosophy bring to the study of capitalism? Could it help in the development of a general theory? My main argument here is that philosophy does have an important role to play in the study of capitalism, particularly if we want to develop a general theory. But philosophers remain much less engaged. Sociologists, economists, historians, anthropologists, political theorists, and literary critics have all turned their attention to the study of capitalism.
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