Theodor W. Adorno's Philosophy, Society, and Aesthetics (Marx, Engels, and Marxisms)

This book is a complete presentation of the most important themes of Theodor W. Adorno’s critical theory, and of its relevance for the understanding of the modern society. After an Introduction, which traces Adorno’s biographical and intellectual profile, the book is structured in three parts. The first is devoted to theoretical philosophy, and in particular to the concepts of philosophy, negative dialectics and metaphysics, and his aim is to clarify the Adornian understanding of such difficult concepts. The second is devoted to the main themes of Adorno’s social theory: the concept of domination, the relationship with Marxism, the theory of the decay of the individual, the critique of mass manipulation. The third part is devoted to aesthetics and culture criticism, and entails a conclusion in which the author outlines a confrontation between the Adornian and the Habermasian critique of modernity . Series Editor’s Foreword Titles Published Titles Forthcoming Praise for Theodor W. Adorno’s Philosophy, Society, and Aesthetics Contents Introduction 1 Education in Weimar Germany 2 The 1930s and Exile 3 The American Period 4 Return to Germany Philosophy An Idea of Philosophy 1 In Search of Dialectics 2 The Concept of “Determinate Negation” 3 Philosophy as Critique 4 An Open and Fallible Thinking What is the Meaning of ‘Negative Dialectics’? 1 Understanding Negative Dialectics 2 The Dialectic of Subject and Object 3 Thinking and Society 4 Self-Criticism of the Concept Dialectics and Metaphysics 1 The Lectures on Metaphysics 2 The Two Senses of Metaphysics 3 The Engagement with Aristotelian Metaphysics 4 The Critique of Idealism and Asymmetrical Mediation 5 Metaphysics After Auschwitz Society An Outdated Philosophy? Adorno’s Social Critique 1 The Peculiarity of Adorno’s Social Theory 2 Difficulties with Adorno’s Theory 3 Anticritique, or: Adorno’s Legacy The Concept of Domination 1 The Concept of Domination in the Dialectic of Enlightenment 2 The Problem of Domination in “Reflections on Class Theory” 3 The Theme of Domination in Adorno’s Later Works Is Marx Obsolete? 1 The “Predictions” of Marxian Theory 2 The Primacy of Economy or the Primacy of Politics 3 The Eclipse of Marxian Contradictions 4 Productive Forces and Relations of Production 5 But the Contradiction Remains 6 A Paradoxical Orthodoxy The Decay of the Individual 1 The Concept of the Individual in Critical Theory 2 The Thesis of the Decline of the Individual 3 Problems and Limits of the Frankfurt School’s Reflection on the Individual The Role of the Media and the Manipulated Democracy Aesthetics and Modernity Aesthetic Theory and Critical Praxis 1 Characteristics of Adorno’s Criticism 2 Reading Adorno Today Adorno’s Engagement with Cultural Criticism 1 Spengler After the Decline 2 Huxley’s Brave New World 3 The Critique of Mass Society Myth and Civilization: Adorno’s Reading of Goethe’s Iphigenia 1 Myth and Civilization in Adorno 2 Adorno’s Reading of Iphigenia Adorno, Habermas, and the Self-Criticism of Modernity 1 Modernity Between Criticism and Self-Criticism 2 Modernity and Catastrophes 3 Habermas and Unfinished Modernity Index