CONTRADICTION, CRITIQUE, AND DIALECTIC IN ADORNO A ...

that the institution’s essential dynamics follow the principle of exchange, which is
external to the institution, and that, under the direction of this principle, the institution no
longer promotes the achievement of goods internal to the institution but rather
unwittingly operates in a way that undermines its own integrity. This in turn means that
the institution is not autonomous. I begin with the institution of the family.
The Family
First, we need to recall Hegel’s view of the role of the family in social life. Hegel
argues that the family promotes the development of freedom at each level: personal,
moral, and social. The family promotes the freedom of personhood by encouraging
children to become independent adults and create their own families. Additionally, it
promotes the freedom of moral subjectivity, or autonomy, by inculcating discipline.
Finally, it promotes the freedom of citizenship by cultivating the child’s capacity for trust
and her appreciation of a shared final end that trumps individual interest. 114 According to
Hegel, by promoting these three levels of freedom, the family simultaneously fosters the
development of an independent self, the stability and unity of the family as a group, and
the formation of good citizens. It thus cultivates goods internal to the family that at the
same time contribute to the good functioning of the social order as a whole.
Like Hegel, Adorno takes the disciplinary formation given by the family to be
central to the development of a strong individual capable of criticism, resistance, and
autonomy. But Adorno’s reasons for endorsing this view are Freudian. In accord with
114 For an excellent discussion of how the family fosters freedom according to Hegel see
Neuhouser, Frederick, Foundations of Hegel’s Social Theory: Actualizing Freedom (Cambridge and
London: Harvard University Press, 2000), 150-157.
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