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

to them, but rather a transformation of the theoretical problem into a depiction of the
concrete and practical grounds of the problem, which in turn can be changed only
through praxis. 303 The “objective content” of the contradiction is thus not abstract and
theoretical at all; it is rather part of social reality, and its interpretation links the original
303 In his 1931 inaugural lecture at Frankfurt University entitled “Die Aktualität der Philosophie,”
Adorno outlined a philosophical program that he followed the rest of his life. The program already
connected the elements of rigorous dialectical thinking and the construction of constellations to break the
system from within. In his lecture, Adorno emphasizes that this program offers the only true ‘materialist’
philosophy, first, because it seeks to unlock the object’s meaning from the object’s standpoint (from the
standpoint of the nature in the object, rather than the standpoint of the subject), and, second, because this
form of interpretation transforms theoretical problems into problems of practice: this is the meaning of his
repeated expression that philosophy seeks to dissolve the “riddles” [Rätsel] of philosophy by showing that
they are rooted in the pathological state of the object, a demonstration that transforms the initial problem
into one that calls not for theoretical solutions, but for political practice. See Adorno, “Die Aktualität der
Philosophy,” Philosophische Frühschriften, Gesammelte Shcriften, Band I (Frankfurt: Surkham Verlag,
2003), 338:
Dafür möchte ich einen zweiten wesentlichen Zusamenhang von deutender Philosophie und
Materialismus bezeichnen. Ich sagte: die Rätselantwort sei nicht der »Sinn« des Rätsels in der
Weise, daß beide zugleich bestehen könnten; daß die Antwort im Rätsel enthalten sei, daß das
Rätsel lediglich seine Erscheinung bilde und als Intention die Antwort in sich beschließe.
Vielmehr steht die Antwort in strenger Antithesis zum Rätsel; bedarf der Konstruktion aus den
Rätselelementen und zerstört das Rätsel, das nicht sinnvoll, sondern sinnlos ist, sobald die
Antwort ihm schlagend erteilt ward. Die Bewegung, die hier im Spiel sich vollzieht, vollzieht der
Materialismus im Ernst. Ernst heißt dort: daß der Bescheid nicht im geschlossenen Raum von
Erkenntnis verbleibt, sondern daß ihn Praxis erteilt. Die Deutung der vorgefundenen Wirklichkeit
und ihre Aufhebung sind auf einander bezogen. … In der Vernichtung der Frage bewährt sich erst
die Echtheit philosophischer Deutung und reines Denken vermag sie von sich aus nicht zu
vollziehen: darum zwingt sie die Praxis herbei.
English translation by Benjamin Snow in Adorno, “The Actuality of Philosophy,” Telos, No. 31 (Spring
1977): 129:
I would like to point out a second essential connection between interpretive philosophy and
materialism. I said that the riddle’s answer was not the ‘meaning’ of the riddle in the sense that
both could exist at the same time. The answer was contained within the riddle, and the riddle
portrayed only its own appearance and contained the answer within itself as intention. Far more,
the answer stands in strict antithesis to the riddle, needs to be constructed out of the riddle’s
elements, and destroys the riddle, which is not meaningful, but meaningless, as soon as the answer
is decisively given to it. The movement which occurs in this process is executed in earnestness by
materialism. Earnestness means here that the answer does not remain mistakenly in the closed
area of knowledge, but that praxis is granted to it. The interpretation of given reality and its
abolition are connected to each other, not, of course, in the sense that reality is negated in the
concept, but that out of the construction of a configuration of reality the demand for its [reality’s]
real change always follows promptly. … Only in the annihilation of the question is the
authenticity of philosophical interpretation first successfully proven, and mere thought by itself
cannot accomplish this [authenticity]: therefore the annihilation of the question compels praxis.
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