Med kritikken som våben

Critique as an instrument This article introduces Bourdieu’s work Distinction (1979) in the form of an interview with the author. Bourdieu attempts to explain the theoretical principles that form the base of his comprehensive empirical work. Distinction was Bour¬dieu’s first real contribution to the debate concerning the symbolic order within the field of the social sciences. He argues that this analysis of socially conditioned life-patterns was meant to be an input to the critique of Kant’s position as well as an input to the critique of the conventional theories of human action. Bourdieu points out that social-philosophical critique reduces theories of social develop¬ment by applying mostly formal and empty concepts. Instead he proposes a mo¬re sociologically and empirically based critique, which is in touch with “reality“. He finds this approach to be far more radical than the social-phi¬losophical perspective, which he calls simple or trivial. According to Bourdieu, a radical critique must take into account all the results from social sciences – only then can it become a critical weapon.