Critical philosophy has always challenged the division between theory and practice. At its best, it aims to turn contemplation into emancipation, seeking to transform society in pursuit of equality, autonomy, and human flourishing. Yet today’s critical theory often seems to engage only in critique. These times of crisis demand more.

Bernard E. Harcourt challenges us to move beyond decades of philosophical detours and to harness critical thought to the need for action. In a time of increasing awareness of economic and social inequality, Harcourt calls on us to make society more equal and just. Only critical theory can guide us toward a more self-reflexive pursuit of justice. Charting a vision for political action and social transformation, Harcourt argues that instead of posing the question, “What is to be done?” we must now turn it back onto ourselves and ask, and answer, “What more am I to do?”

Critique and Praxis advocates for a new path forward that constantly challenges each and every one of us to ask what more we can do to realize a society based on equality and justice. Joining his decades of activism, social-justice litigation, and political engagement with his years of critical theory and philosophical work, Harcourt has written a magnum opus.

"Critique and Praxis is the work of a visionary revolutionary intellectual." - British Journal of Sociology

"Harcourt has produced a challenging book, which addresses many of our current predicaments, and he has the moral authority to command our attention." - Marx and Philosophy Review of Books

"His mountainous text is a repetitive tool-box of notes and thoughts from his seminar series and own readings. Like lightning, brilliant ideas flash across the pages." - Counterpunch

"By any measure, Critique & Praxis is an impressive contribution, passionate, lucid, deeply committed and nearly always generous in its disagreements. As a conversation between Foucauldian philosophy and radical-political engagement, it is a tour de force." - New Left Review

"It’s lucidly written and relatively short on jargon. Which makes it an important book to pay attention to, even for those with no interest in abstruse political-social theories, because we urgently need new ways to critique the system we live in and develop new strategies to oppose and replace it." - History News Network

"Critique & Praxis is one of the most provoking contributions to critical theory of the twenty-first century." - Foucault Studies

"Bernard Harcourt's latest book is bold, brave, and too short." - British Journal of Sociology

"A wide-ranging effort to take up the conundrum of critical theory, which has been with us since Marx wrote the eleventh thesis—that is, that we think and act in and on a damaged society." - Political Theory