A Comment on Immanent Critique, Ideology, and Power

All contributors to the Radical Critical Theory Circle's symposium ‘Thinking Capitalism in the 21st Century"" highlight deficiencies in mainstream critical theory’s analysis of capitalism, but also point to some possible avenues of renewal. This this brief commentary focuses on how one should understand immanent critique - and in particular empirically-grounded versions of immanent critique. The piece's main contentions are that critique should rediscover its high modernist vocation as a Wissenschaft, and that a radical realist approach can uncover new ways for political theory to expose the most important power structures in society.