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

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(the propositions to which ordinary individuals give or tend to give assent) are contradictory, in a logical and straightforward sense, with the propositions that correctly describe the essence of (social) reality. This is the sense in which Adorno holds that the structure of social reality is a structure of contradiction between appearance and essence, and this contradictory structure captures part of what he means by the “contradiction in the object.” But we must be careful in talking about the phenomenon by which reality is bifurcated into ‘appearance’ and ‘essence’ as a split into two realms, for it is essential to keep in mind that this is not an ontological separation into two different realms of being. (If it were an ontological bifurcation, then the two realms, being contradictory, could not co-exist.) The distinction between essence and appearance is not a distinction in the order of being but rather a distinction in the order of intelligibility: a distinction between the surface grammar of reality—i.e., appearance—and its deep logical structure—i.e., essence. The distinction between appearance and essence in Adorno is to be understood along Hegelian lines: Essence is not disconnected from appearance but is rather the ground of intelligibility for appearance and, as thus, is immanent in appearance. The appearance of reality is the appearance of essence; it results from the dynamics of essence (i.e., of the total determination of social reality by exchange). And the essence is essence only through its effects: through the appearance to which it gives rise. Thus, Adorno says, “Die gesellschafliche Totalität führt kein Eigenleben oberhalb des von ihr Zusammengefaßten, aus dem sie selbst besteht. Sie produziert und reproduziert sich 160
durch ihre einzelnen Momente hindurch.” 158 Following Hegel, Adorno calls this relation of inter-dependence between essence and appearance a relation of ‘mediation’ [Vermittlung]. Viewed as mediated, the relation between appearance and essence must be construed as constitutive not of two separate realms causally or representationally connected, but rather as the poles of intelligibility of a single realm: (social) reality. Appearance and essence, and their relation, are constitutive of object and subject: In objectivity, appearance corresponds to the realm of finite facts and essence to the overall constitution of finite facts by the social totality. In subjectivity, appearance corresponds to ordinary consciousness and essence to the theoretical grasp of the concept of “the whole” or “the social totality” as fully determined by exchange, and as the ground of intelligibility for the claims of ordinary consciousness. Further, we have seen that Adorno holds the relation between appearance and essence to be one of ‘contradiction.’ The reason for this is that the analysis of finite facts and isolated elements of social life as independent from the social totality gives rise to an interpretation that is logically incompatible (thus ‘contradictory’) with the interpretation that arises from conceptualizing them as mediated by the social totality and, in particular, by the totality’s determination by the principle of exchange. In objectivity, appearance and essence constitute the inconsistent interplay between the logic of finite facts and their overall determination by society, in particular, by the principle of exchange. In 158 Adorno, “Zur Logik der Sozialwissenschaften” in Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. 8 (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1969). 549. English translation by Glyn Adey and David Frisby in Adorno, “On the Logic of the Social Sciences,” in The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology (Brookfield, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney: Avebury, 1994), 107: “Societal totality does not lead a life of its own over and above that which it unites and of which it, in its turn, is composed. It produces and reproduces itself through its individual moments.” 161
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CONTRADICTION, CRITIQUE, AND DIALEC
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CONTRADICTION, CRITIQUE, AND DIALEC
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For my parents, Luz Marina and John
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4.3 Adorno’s resolution of the di
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FIGURES Figure 4.1: Inner contradic
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost,
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CHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEM OF DETERMINA
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in the present study, and which I t
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inadequate. In my view, O’Connor
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system, and Adorno rejects both the
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and instead examining only the assu
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In Hegel, there are three stages in
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dialectical movement in act. 16 Phi
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According to Hegel, the philosopher
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dialectic is driven forward from on
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observing consciousness has already
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consciousness to perform the operat
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and makes possible the successive a
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corresponds to the self-determining
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And yet, as I hope to have shown in
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claim; namely, that the Hegelian sy
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the system’s inability to express
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Hegel’s idea that history is in e
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irremediably caught in a situation
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defined in its essence by rationali
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zum Entsetzen verifiziert und auf d
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1.2.2 Hegelian dialectics as a form
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objectivity, but rather as an empha
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as thought, is a form of thought th
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conceptual element. It is thus ulti
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It is clear, however, that (2) is n
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ultimately blind to this problem. H
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Aber Denken darf auch nicht bei der
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The first contradiction is internal
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world, and the nature of the subjec
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undertaking of giving an account of
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eflection. 62 The idea is that, ins
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of subject and object characterizin
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then, will be to take a suitable ex
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in it as providing a stable view of
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2.2 The subject’s mediation of an
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It might be thought, then, that the
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the subject as, on the one hand, an
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of consciousness that are then said
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Note the radical nature of Adorno
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tasks of ideology: first, to mask t
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more intelligible but also to lead
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empirical subject. The transcendent
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something external to the individua
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Even the individual who explicitly
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others, and even her own self-under
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is “contradictory” and “false
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Moreover, even modern critiques of
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Einzelmensch, so wie er zu agieren
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says that the “fixity and invaria
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the subject-object relation. I cons
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the concrete living individual, exp
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Clarifying Adorno’s notion of ant
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structure of modern society maximiz
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the following points to be relative
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Page 127 and 128: Civil Society Let us now turn to an
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Page 135 and 136: The State Finally, we need to consi
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Page 151 and 152: case, Hegel’s model would remain
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Page 157 and 158: Adorno’s conception of the antago
Page 159 and 160: The question I pursue in this and t
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Page 165 and 166: efusal to acknowledge social factor
Page 167 and 168: There is therefore a sort of social
Page 169 and 170: their own autonomously defined ends
Page 171: available to thought. By bringing t
Page 175 and 176: eality by the principle of exchange
Page 177 and 178: If a critical form of thought expos
Page 179 and 180: The following diagram illustrates t
Page 181 and 182: appearance and essence characterist
Page 183 and 184: Adorno’s famous statement that
Page 185 and 186: false or delusory. So, the idea tha
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Page 189 and 190: Hegel’s Science of Logic begins w
Page 191 and 192: In my view, the sublation [Aufhebun
Page 193 and 194: contingent historical development,
Page 195 and 196: further interpretation. This need f
Page 197 and 198: Marcuse’s builds his conception o
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Page 205 and 206: asking them to choose their prefere
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Page 209 and 210: Since the contradiction between app
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Page 217 and 218: objects, for the constitution of ob
Page 219 and 220: However, we do not yet know how the
Page 221 and 222: CHAPTER 5: A FREUDIAN INTERPRETATIO
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objects only to the extent that the
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it does not follow the rules of thi
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mechanism, namely paranoid projecti
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civilization and enlightenment has
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Adorno and Horkheimer see the Shoah
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thought has experienced a loss of e
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any objective appreciation and judg
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der Menschheit im Bann der technisc
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imagination exists that ‘reality
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esults in the radical creation of s
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of Adorno’s negative dialectics i
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that human beings on the average ca
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5.4.1 Development of civilization A
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The first stage of distance that Ad
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persuade it or “convince” it to
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much greater control over nature, b
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Threatening, wild nature is pushed
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stronger, and so became the exertio
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advanced capitalist societies is ne
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In his Vorlesung über Negative Dia
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Denken ineinsgesetzt, ohne dessen f
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instrumental reason. Stepping outsi
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een totally “civilized,” of all
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nature from the world; they repeat
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5.5 Conclusion This chapter has dev
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teleologically ordered structure th
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CHAPTER 6: THE DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHT
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6.1 The dialectic of enlightenment
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development of the modern period an
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necessitated by the very mechanism
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The interpretation of Dialektik der
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doing without society provides no a
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conception of historical developmen
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of the system and perhaps also taki
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alone, seemingly for its own sake.
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accordance with which social realit
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(3) Therefore, the result of regres
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from its beginnings in animism to h
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subsection (6.2.2), I briefly expla
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constraints to bring about the emer
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Just like the social-historical lev
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6.2.3 Adorno’s historical method:
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dans sa force et sa faiblesse, la s
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emplacements et de déplacements, d
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individual as ailing from a weak eg
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this point is worth emphasizing bec
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element is a necessary component of
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exchange). Moreover, I said that, f
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within, and constructs the world as
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would be the case if exchange was a
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But the relation of nature to socie
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neither can be understood as more f
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The ‘natural history’ of a phen
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Verschlingungen; darum sind ihr so
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given to the structural order of so
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principle of exchange’s primacy o
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contradiction between appearance an
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introduced in chapter 3: the elemen
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When we consider the relation betwe
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The main goal of this chapter and t
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each of the Concept (beyond the rea
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object leaves room for an idea of c
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context of the object’s origin is
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each element of Kant’s theory on
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precisely through the interpretatio
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problems of the text (or other obje
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Ängste auskennt, das ist auf der e
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The world of empirical experience,
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Adorno interprets Kant’s division
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interpretation as the dissolution o
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demonstrates that the contradiction
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ist—der Begriff des Widerspruchs
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a. The first component corresponds
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historical context. But this way of
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The concern with retrieving the non
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object, which necessarily exceeds i
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the problem seems to be inherent in
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However, this society is pathologic
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sufficiency the “Schein des Ansic
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The category of ‘inner nature’
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fragments and their rhetorical form
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TABLE 7.1 DISCURSIVE-CONCEPTUAL V.
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moreover, a critique that simply ig
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The two philosophical strands, or s
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experience of suffering or damage,
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CHAPTER 8: PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE A
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adicalization of the materialist st
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Adorno’s words, nature is that wh
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One important point in Benjamin’s
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After the fall, “the judging word
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Importantly, however, language afte
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particular object is preserved in o
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that, “Was aber solche Namen als
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Die platonische Anamnesis steht die
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elements in the exemplary particula
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hat Geschichte nur noch als einen G
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Das Echte - jenes Ursprungssiegel i
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It is not my purpose here philosoph
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Adorno takes the idea of constellat
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The notion of onomatopoeia is strai
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Ausdruck kommt, in sehr entrückten
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evelation of this symbolic dimensio
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anders als in der Sprache nicht ged
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an aesthetic (artistic) ability to
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The constellation provides a field,
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constellation succeeds, and in the
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Again in agreement, Benjamin and Ad
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Adorno’s basic disagreement with
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immediately related to the economic
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[B]eide sind die auseinandergerisse
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illumination of the phenomenon that
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Adorno says that “Die Formel daß
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echen: Ihre eigene, die rücksichts
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which nature mediates social realit
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concept,” and chapter 8 gave a fi
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eality—that is, the structure of
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conceptual tensions in the object a
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conceptual oppositions that arise f
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object,” as well as in the “con
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element and in terms of its interpr
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The logical structure of paranoid p
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I do want to conclude with some ref
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If Adorno is right, this abstract l
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that they repress the non-conceptua
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Works by Adorno in the
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---. Negative Dialectics. Translate
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---. “On Some Motifs in Baudelair
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---. “Neurosis and psychosis.”
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---. Capital, Vol. I. Translated by
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