‘Functionalist prejudice’: Critical theory and teleology

This article undertakes a historical-critical investigation of the intertwining of critical theory and functionalism in steps. It takes Adorno's critique of functionalism in architecture as a point of departure to distinguish the specific sense in which ‘functionalism’ is defined and subsequently rejected. The following section scrutinizes how critical theory deploys functionalist explanation, consciously or unconsciously, as the operative dynamic of its social diagnosis. On this basis, the third section utilises previously articulated methodological distinctions to outline critical theory's attempts at a normative reconstruction of the category of ‘function’. Then the inquiry pivots to the debates within analytical Marxism to examine critical theory's over-reliance on ‘objective teleology’ within its social diagnosis. Finally, the paper returns to the primary texts of sociological functionalism to refute critical theory's stereotype that equates function with end, thereby recovering more sophisticated understandings of functionalism for sociological analysis.