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

(following Walter Benjamin) that the “Aufgabe der Philosophie” [the role of philosophy]
is nothing less than “die intentionslose Wirklichkeit zu deuten” [to interpret unintentional
reality]. 289
On the other hand, the standpoint of nature, this radically non-anthropocentric
perspective on things, can nonetheless only be sought with subjective tools: concepts and
theories that describe the social order and various historical elements in relation to which
the phenomenon under interpretation has acquired its present meaning. The point of the
analysis is to order the concepts and theories around the center of gravity of the
phenomenon in such a way that the innermost core of the phenomenon, the meaning of its
historical being, reaches expression in an interpretation. Adorno thus characterizes
philosophy precisely as the attempt to go beyond concepts to non-conceptual nature, with
nothing more than the force of the concept: “Und ich würde eine Definition riskieren wie
etwa die, daß die Idee der Philosophie sei, über den Begriff mit dem Begriff
hinauszugelangen“ [and I would risk as a definition that the idea of philosophy is to go
beyond the concept with the concept]. 290
something is, while identity thinking says what it falls under, what it is an exemplar or
representative of, and not what it itself is. The more ruthlessly identity-thinking assails its object,
the more it distances itself from identity with it. Through the critique of identity, identity does not
vanish but rather undergoes a qualitative change. Elements of affinity between the object and the
thinking of it live in identity.
For other places where Adorno speaks of the goal of philosophy as allowing the self-expression of nature,
see also Adorno, Negative Dialektik (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970), 165, Adorno, Vorlesungen über
Negative Dialektik (Frankfurt: Surkhamp Verlag, 2003), 110-111, and Adorno, “Die Aktualität der
Philosophy,” Philosophische Frühschriften, Gesammelte Shcriften, Band I (Frankfurt: Surkham Verlag,
2003), 325-344.
289 Adorno, “Die Aktualität der Philosophy,” Philosophische Frühschriften, Gesammelte Shcriften,
Band I (Frankfurt: Surkham Verlag, 2003), 335.
290 Adorno, Vorlesung über Negative Dialektik (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2003), 141.
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