Theodor W. Adorno : an introduction
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Bibliographic Information
Theodor W. Adorno : an introduction
（Post-contemporary interventions / series editors, Stanley Fish & Fredric Jameson）
Duke University Press, 2009
- : cloth
- : pbk
- Other Title
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Theodor W. Adorno zur Einführung
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Translation of: Theodor W. Adorno zur Einführung
Includes bibliographical references (p. [171]-177) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) was one of the twentieth century's most important thinkers. In light of two pivotal developments-the rise of fascism, which culminated in the Holocaust, and the standardization of popular culture as a commodity indispensable to contemporary capitalism-Adorno sought to evaluate and synthesize the essential insights of Western philosophy by revisiting the ethical and sociological arguments of his predecessors: Kant, Nietzsche, Hegel, and Marx. This book, first published in Germany in 1996, provides a succinct introduction to Adorno's challenging and far-reaching thought. Gerhard Schweppenhauser, a leading authority on the Frankfurt School of critical theory, explains Adorno's epistemology, social and political philosophy, aesthetics, and theory of culture.After providing a brief overview of Adorno's life, Schweppenhauser turns to the theorist's core philosophical concepts, including post-Kantian critique, determinate negation, and the primacy of the object, as well as his view of the Enlightenment as a code for world domination, his diagnosis of modern mass culture as a program of social control, and his understanding of modernist aesthetics as a challenge to conceive an alternative politics. Along the way, Schweppenhauser illuminates the works widely considered Adorno's most important achievements: Minima Moralia, Dialectic of Enlightenment (co-authored with Horkheimer), and Negative Dialectics. Adorno wrote much of the first two of these during his years in California (1938-49), where he lived near Arnold Schoenberg and Thomas Mann, whom he assisted with the musical aesthetics at the center of Mann's novel Doctor Faustus.
Table of Contents
Preface to the English Edition vii
Translator's Preface xi
1. The Project of Renewing Childhood by Transforming One's Life 1
2. Critical Theory 11
3. Reason's Self-Criticism 18
Defined Negation 20
The Two Faces of Enlightenment 26
4. Rescuing What is Beyond Hope 34
Philosophy from the Perspective of Redemption 34
Primacy of the Object 38
5. The Totally Socialized Society 51
The Concept of Society 52
Liquidation of the Individual 58
Critical Theory on Morality 68
6. The Goal of the Emancipated Society 77
7. The Powerless Utopia of Beauty 91
The Destruction and Salvation of Art 93
The Silence of Music 102
The Transition from Art to Knowledge 109
Theorizing Art and Culture in the Institute for Social Research 112
Benjamin and Kracauer: Theorizing Mass Art 120
Anarchistic and Bourgeois Romanticism: Adorno's Critique of Benjamin 125
The Work of Art and the Concept of Truth 128
8. The Failure of Culture 136
The Radically Pathetic and Guilty Culture 137
Enlightenment as Mass Deception 144
Biographical Timeline 159
Notes 163
Bibliography 171
Index 179
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