A Companion to Adorno (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy)

A definitive contribution to scholarship on Adorno, bringing together the foremost experts in the field As one of the leading continental philosophers of the last century, and one of the pioneering members of the Frankfurt School, Theodor W. Adorno is the author of numerous influential—and at times quite radical—works on diverse topics in aesthetics, social theory, moral philosophy, and the history of modern philosophy, all of which concern the contradictions of modern society and its relation to human suffering and the human condition. Having authored substantial contributions to critical theory which contain searching critiques of the ‘culture industry’ and the ‘identity thinking’ of modern Western society, Adorno helped establish an interdisciplinary but philosophically rigorous study of culture and provided some of the most startling and revolutionary critiques of Western society to date. The Blackwell Companion to Adorno is the largest collection of essays by Adorno specialists ever gathered in a single volume. Part of the acclaimed Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series, this important contribution to the field explores Adorno’s lasting impact on many sub-fields of philosophy. Seven sections, encompassing a diverse range of topics and perspectives, explore Adorno’s intellectual foundations, his critiques of culture, his views on ethics and politics, and his analyses of history and domination. Provides new research and fresh perspectives on Adorno’s views and writings Offers an authoritative, single-volume resource for Adorno scholarship Addresses renewed interest in Adorno’s significance to contemporary questions in philosophy Presents over 40 essays written by international-recognized experts in the field A singular advancement in Adorno scholarship, the Companion to Adorno is an indispensable resource for Adorno specialists and anyone working in modern European philosophy, contemporary cultural criticism, social theory, German history, and aesthetics. Cover Title Page Copyright Page Contents Notes on Contributors Editors’ Introduction About the Editors Part I Intellectual Foundations Chapter 1 Adorno: A Biographical Sketch References Further Reading Chapter 2 Adorno’s Inaugural Lecture: The Actuality of Philosophy in the Age of Mass Production 1. Introduction 2. Idealism and Bourgeois Society 3. Weimar: Social Experience and Industrial Society 4. The Actuality of Philosophy and Aesthetic Modernism 5. Conclusion References Further Reading Chapter 3 Reading Kierkegaard 1. Introduction 2. Part I How and Why Adorno Reads Kierkegaard: Letting the Thought-Image Appear 3. Part II What we Learn from Adorno’s Kierkegaard: The Sustenance of Negative Meaning References Further Reading Chapter 4 Guilt and Mourning: Adorno’s Debt to and Critique of Benjamin 1. A Metaphysics of Language 2. Letting the Object Speak 3. Redeeming the Phenomena 4. Guilt or Mourning References Further Reading Notes Chapter 5 Adorno and the Second Viennese School 1. The Path: Modernity, Music, and the New (Adorno and Berg) 2. The Philosophy: A Dialectical Theory of the New Music (Adorno and Schoenberg) 3. The Legacy: A Philosophy’s Aesthetic Aftermath (Adorno and Webern) 4. Difficulties References Further Reading Part II Cultural Analysis Chapter 6 The Culture Industry 1. Music and its Transmission 2. Dialectic, Form, Concept 3. The Silver Screen and Beyond 4. Afterlife of an Idea 5. Concluding Thoughts References Further Reading Chapter 7 Adorno and Horkheimer on Anti-Semitism 1. Objections and Dilemmas 2. Complex Coherence 3. Long History and Levels of Specificity 4. The Image of “the Jews” References Further Reading Chapter 8 Adorno and Jazz 1. “That’s Not Jazz” 2. Adorno’s Jazz Essay 3. Adorno’s Empirical Limitations 4. “Interpretation Has a Lot to Learn from Jazz” 5. “What Jazz Is Really Saying in Social Terms” 6. Art and Objectivity 7. The “State of the Material” 8. Music, Philosophy, and Social Theory References Further Reading Notes Chapter 9 Adorno’s Democratic Modernism in America: Leaders and Educators as Political Artists 1. Democratic Leadership as Democratic Pedagogy 2. Epiphanies and Enlightenment: Adorno’s Democratic Modernism 3. Conclusion References Further Reading Chapter 10 Inhuman Methods for an Inhumane World: Adorno’s Empirical Social Research, 1938–1950 1. Introduction 2. Using the European Approach 3. Adorno’s Most Dangerous Thesis 4. Empirical Research Contra Empirical Verification 5. A Highly Promising Method 6. Outflanking the Research Racket 7. The Rigidity of Constructing Types 8. Empirical Research Presupposing its Own End 9. Conclusion References Further Reading Notes Part III History and Domination Chapter 11 Adorno and Blumenberg: Nonconceptuality and the Bilderverbot References Notes Chapter 12 Philosophy of History 1. Liberation and Its Caricatures 2. Kant: Antagonism and Peace 3. Hegel: Determinate Negation and World History 4. Marx: Misery and Happiness 5. History, Possibility, and Nonidentity 6. Suffering and Expression References Further Reading Chapter 13 The Anthropology in 1. The Point of Their Critical Anthropology 2. Investigating the Prototype of the Self 3. The Logic of Sacrifice 4. Cunning as Protoreflexivity 5. Cunning as Self-Deception 6. Concluding Remarks References Further Reading Chapter 14 Adorno’s Reception of Weber and Lukács 1. Introduction 2. Weber and Lukács on Instrumental Rationality and Reification 3. Adorno’s Critique of the Enlightenment 4. Consciousness and Reification: The Negative Dialectic 5. Aesthetic Experience as Subjective Force-Field 6. The Transformation of Critique References Further Reading Chapter 15 Adorno’s Aesthetic Model of Social Critique 1. Introduction 2. Causal Critique and Intrinsic Critique 3. Aesthetic Applications: “High” Art 4. The Culture Industry and Popular Culture 5. Micrological Analysis in 6. Pushing Back Against Adorno’s Methods 7. Conclusion References Further Reading Notes Chapter 16 The Critique of the Enlightenment 1. Introduction 2.Dialectic of Enlightenment and History 3.Dialectic of Enlightenment and Agency 4.Dialectic of Enlightenment and Kant 5. On the Importance of Freud 6. Conclusion References Further Reading Notes Part IV Social Theory and Empirical Inquiry Chapter 17 “Nothing is True Except the Exaggerations”: The Legacy of The Authoritarian Personality References Further Reading Chapter 18 Exposing Antagonisms: Adorno on the Possibilities of Sociology 1. Introduction 2. Disappearing Contradictions 3. Taming Conflict 4. Sociological Approaches 5. Conclusion References Further Reading Notes Chapter 19 Adorno and Marx 1. Philosophy and/or Sociology? 2. Sociology of the Commodity-Form 3. Marx’s Social Ontology: “Facticity of the Conceptuality of Exchange” References Further Reading Notes Chapter 20 Adorno’s Three Contributions to a Theory of Mass Psychology and Why They Matter 1. Mass Psychology and Critical Theory 2. Freud and the Kantian Subject 3. The Group 4. Authoritarian vs. Democratic Psychology 5. The 1960s References Further Reading Notes Chapter 21 Adorno and Postwar German Society 1. Professor, Expert, Critic, Counselor: Adorno in the Federal Republic 2. Society – Germany – Postwar: The Components of Adorno’s Analysis 3. The Psychobiography and Therapy of Germany: “Working Through the Past” 4. The Intellectual as Pedagogue in the Administered Society: Adorno’s Postwar Enlightenment 5. “Why Did You Return?” Adorno and the Nation References Further Reading Part V Aesthetics Chapter 22 Aesthetic Autonomy 1. Experience as Primary 2. Truth 3. Cognitivism, Reference, and Determination 4. Conclusion References Further Reading Notes Chapter 23 Adorno and Literary Criticism 1. Culture and Literary Criticism in Post-War Germany 2. Adorno’s Philosophical Aesthetics 3. Heine: Coming Home 4. Hölderlin: Hearkening to Nature 5. An Ethical Criticism References Further Reading Note Chapter 24 Adorno as a Modernist Writer 1. Modern Life and Modernism 2. Cavell on Modernism in Philosophy 3. Modernism and Epiphanic Form 4. Adorno on Modernism 5. Modernist Style in Minima Moralia 6. Some Weaknesses in Adorno’s Style: Constanze 7. Modernist Philosophy as a Continuing Task References Further Reading Chapter 25 Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory 1. Aesthetic Theory: Threat or Menace? 2. Kant and Hegel 3. Form and Content: Mastery Over Material 4. End of Art: Good, Bad, and Forever 5. Art and Its Other Others 6. Expression, Semblance, and Mimesis References Notes Chapter 26 Aesthetic Theory as Social Theory 1. Introduction: Sociology of Art as a Challenge 2. The Early Model 3. Postwar Revisions 4. Adorno’s Late Work: Aesthetic Theory References Further Reading Chapter 27 Adorno, Music, and the Ineffable 1. Ineffable Utopias 2. Exact Listening 3. Inconsistent Listening 4. Philosophy and the Ineffable References Further Reading Chapter 28 Adorno and Opera 1. Opera, Critical Theory, and Sociological Musicology 2. The [Special] Case of Wagner References Further Reading Note Part VI Negative Dialectics Chapter 29 What Is Negative Dialectics?: Adorno’s Reevaluation of Hegel References Further Reading Notes Chapter 30 Adorno’s Critique of Heidegger 1. Adorno’s Philosophical Criticisms of Heidegger 2. Concepts and Hypostatization 3. Parallels 4. Conclusion References Note Chapter 31 Concept and Object: Adorno’s Critique of Kant 1. S aturday Afternoons with Kant 2. The Concept of the Concept and Constitutive Subjectivity 3. “To Break Through the Appearance of Total Identity” 4. Non-conceptuality: Mimesis, Expression, Presentation 5. Transcendental and Empirical, Subject and Object 6. The Thing-in-itself References Further Reading Notes Chapter 32 Critique and Disappointment: Negative Dialectics as Late Philosophy References Further Reading Notes Chapter 33 Negative Dialectics and Philosophical Truth 1. A Changed Philosophy 2. Philosophy and Singularity 3. Persuasion and Reportability 4. From Philosophy to Textual Criticism 5. Conclusion References Further Reading Chapter 34 Adorno and Scholem: The Heretical Redemption of Metaphysics 1. Introduction 2. Religious Mysticism and Material Life: Historical Background and the Early Conversations 3. The Context of Blindness: Mysticism, Myth, and Reason 4. Antinomianism and Resistance: Damaged Life and the Critique of Normativity 5. Heretical Redemption: Theology, Metaphysics, and Materialism References Further Reading Notes Chapter 35 Adorno’s Concept of Metaphysical Experience 1. Metaphysics and Ambivalence in Modern Philosophy 2. Adorno on Classical Metaphysics 3. The Enduring Possibility of Metaphysical Experience 4. The Politics of Metaphysical Experience References Further Reading Notes Part VII Ethics and Politics Chapter 36 After Auschwitz 1. Introduction 2. Poetry 3. Morality 4. Goodness, Meaning, Truth 5. Education 6. A Perspective References Further Reading Notes Chapter 37 Forever Resistant? Adorno and Radical Transformation of Society 1. Theory and Praxis 2. Resignation versus Radical Societal Transformation 3. Conclusion References Further Reading Notes Chapter 38 Adorno’s Materialist Ethic of Love 1. Reification Is an Epiphenomenon 2. Situation: Modern Love 3. Coercion and Freedom: Redemption of the Reified 4. Conclusion References Further Reading Notes Chapter 39 Adorno’s Metaphysics of Moral Solidarity in the Moment of its Fall 1. Metaphysics, Materialism, and Humanism in Adorno 2. Negativism in Adorno 3. Theunissen’s Challenge 4. Adorno’s Moral Metaphysics of Solidarity Reconstructed 5. Four Tests of Adequacy of my Reconstruction Acknowledgement References Further Reading Notes Index EULA

A definitive contribution to scholarship on Adorno, bringing together the foremost experts in the field

As one of the leading continental philosophers of the last century, and one of the pioneering members of the Frankfurt School, Theodor W. Adorno is the author of numerous influential—and at times quite radical—works on diverse topics in aesthetics, social theory, moral philosophy, and the history of modern philosophy, all of which concern the contradictions of modern society and its relation to human suffering and the human condition. Having authored substantial contributions to critical theory which contain searching critiques of the 'culture industry' and the 'identity thinking' of modern Western society, Adorno helped establish an interdisciplinary but philosophically rigorous study of culture and provided some of the most startling and revolutionary critiques of Western society to date.

The Blackwell Companion to Adorno is the largest collection of essays by Adorno specialists ever gathered in a single volume. Part of the acclaimed Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series, this important contribution to the field explores Adorno's lasting impact on many sub-fields of philosophy. Seven sections, encompassing a diverse range of topics and perspectives, explore Adorno's intellectual foundations, his critiques of culture, his views on ethics and politics, and his analyses of history and domination.

• Provides new research and fresh perspectives on Adorno's views and writings
• Offers an authoritative, single-volume resource for Adorno scholarship
• Addresses renewed interest in Adorno's significance to contemporary questions in philosophy
• Presents over 40 essays written by international-recognized experts in the field

A singular advancement in Adorno scholarship, the Companion to Adorno is an indispensable resource for Adorno specialists and anyone working in modern European philosophy, contemporary cultural criticism, social theory, German history, and aesthetics.

A definitive contribution to scholarship on Adorno, bringing together the foremost experts in the field As one of the leading continental philosophers of the last century, and one of the pioneering members of the Frankfurt School, Theodor W. Adorno is the author of numerous influential—and at times quite radical—works on diverse topics in aesthetics, social theory, moral philosophy, and the history of modern philosophy, all of which concern the contradictions of modern society and its relation to human suffering and the human condition. Having authored substantial contributions to critical theory which contain searching critiques of the ‘culture industry’ and the ‘identity thinking’ of modern Western society, Adorno helped establish an interdisciplinary but philosophically rigorous study of culture and provided some of the most startling and revolutionary critiques of Western society to date. The Blackwell Companion to Adorno is the largest collection of essays by Adorno specialists ever gathered in a single volume. Part of the acclaimed Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series, this important contribution to the field explores Adorno’s lasting impact on many sub-fields of philosophy. Seven sections, encompassing a diverse range of topics and perspectives, explore Adorno’s intellectual foundations, his critiques of culture, his views on ethics and politics, and his analyses of history and domination. Provides new research and fresh perspectives on Adorno’s views and writings Offers an authoritative, single-volume resource for Adorno scholarship Addresses renewed interest in Adorno’s significance to contemporary questions in philosophy Presents over 40 essays written by international-recognized experts in the field A singular advancement in Adorno scholarship, the Companion to Adorno is an indispensable resource for Adorno specialists and anyone working in modern European philosophy, contemporary cultural criticism, social theory, German history, and aesthetics.ISBN : 9781119146919 "This chapter is intended to provide the reader with a brief biographical overview of Adorno's life and thought, with an emphasis on the key turning points in his career. It discusses his childhood, his education in Frankfurt, his musical studies, his emigration first to Oxford and then to the United States, his return to Germany after World War Two, his tenure as professor at the Goethe Universität Frankfurt and his prominence as a public intellectual, and his confrontation with students. Together with biographical details the chapter also offers a simple overview of Adorno's major concerns as a philosopher"-- Provided by publisher "This chapter is intended to provide the reader with a brief biographical overview of Adorno's life and thought, with an emphasis on the key turning points in his career. It discusses his childhood, his education in Frankfurt, his musical studies, his emigration first to Oxford and then to the United States, his return to Germany after World War Two, his tenure as professor at the Goethe Universitat Frankfurt and his prominence as a public intellectual, and his confrontation with students. Together with biographical details the chapter also offers a simple overview of Adorno's major concerns as a philosopher"--