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

dialectic is driven forward from one position to the next through a form of negation that
is determinate, a form of negation that gives rise to each new position without any logical
gaps. The dialectical movement of thought is driven forward by strictly following the
exigencies of the object, and the logical operation by which such exigencies are
articulated in consciousness is determinate negation. So, the dialectical movement of
thought is possible only because negation is determinate rather than merely abstract or
skeptical.
1.1.2 Determinate negation presupposes the Hegelian ‘absolute’ system.
I have said that dialectical reflection is moved forward by a demand from the
object to be thought in a certain way: in this sense, the different positions considered are
connected by ontological-logical (rather than merely formal-logical) necessity. But how
is this form of necessity revealed to consciousness? In order to answer this question, I
will first consider how the necessity connecting different forms of consciousness is made
available to consciousness in the Phenomenology. Then I will discuss the structure of
necessity in the connection of the basic items of thought Hegel consideres in the Logic.
I begin with the Phenomenology. The first thing to note is that the intelligibility
of the dialectical progression in the Phenomenology requires engagement between an
observing consciousness, the reader of the Phenomenology, and the object of reflection,
the successive forms of ordinary consciousness described in the text. The observing
consciousness follows the movement of the ordinary consciousness as the latter goes
through various theoretical ways of understanding reality in order for the former (1) to
comprehend the necessary connections between successive stages in the forms of
consciousness, (2) to have evidence of the ontological necessity connecting these stages,
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