The intellectual practice of critique is a self-evident feature of academic life in the humanities as well as “critical” social science. However, the contemporary “post- truth” age presents a potential crisis for critique. This seminar entertains the practice of critique as form, as a vehicle for the expression of knowledge and as a mode of intervention in the world of texts, cultures, and identities. Readings include examples of critique drawn from critical philosophy, Marxism, social science, literary theory, and critical theory. We will consider skeptical views that question the self-evidence of critique. Specific themes addressed by readings and discussions include the styles of critique, the affect of critique, aesthetic judgments, the limits of critical knowledge, and the future of critique. Writers include: René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, Theodor Adorno, Clement Greenberg, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Jacques Rancière, Sianne Nqai, Toril Moi, bell hooks, Lorraine Daston, Bruno Latour, Rita Felski, Susan Neiman, Susan Sontag, and others. [Track C]