Filosofía(arte/política)

Libros:

VVAA (Adorno, Benjamin, Bloch Lukacs), (2007): Aesthetics and politics, London: Verso Books.

ADORNO, Theodor, (1998): Aesthetic Theory, London: The Athlone Press.

ADORNO, Theodor, (2007): Minima moralia, Torino: Einaudi.
ADORNO, Theodor, HORKHEIMER, Max, (2007): Dialéctica de la ilustración, Madrid: Akal.

Dialéctica de la Ilustración, escrita en colaboración con Horkheimer es una crítica a la razón instrumental, concepto fundamental de este último autor, o, lo que es lo mismo, una crítica, fundada en una interpretación pesimista de la Ilustración, a la civilización técnica y a la cultura del sistema capitalista (que llama industria cultural), o de la sociedad de mercado, que no persigue otro fin que el progreso técnico. La actual civilización técnica, surgida del espíritu de la Ilustración y de su concepto de razón, no representa más que un dominio racional sobre la naturaleza, que implica paralelamente un dominio (irracional) sobre el hombre; los diversos fenómenos de barbarie moderna (fascismo y nazismo) no serían sino muestras, y la vez las peores manifestaciones, de esta actitud autoritaria de dominio.

(La industria cultural. Ilustración como engaño de masas, El esquema de la cultura de masas, Propaganda, Sociedad de masas, Aislamiento por comunicación)

A Few Key Terms in Adorno

AESTHETIC THEORY: Adorno asserts the “priority of the object in art,” or what is called a materialist aesthetic, in contrast to the idealist aesthetic of Kant which privileges the subject over the object (Jarvis 99). For Kant, the experience of art is a product of the perceptions of the subject. For Adorno, the art object and the aesthetic experience of the art object contain a truth-content. Truth-content is a cognitive content “which is not exhausted either by the subjective intentions of its producers or by the subjective responses of its consumers,” and that may be revealed through analysis (Jarvis 98). Whereas Kant conceives of beauty as a subjective experience, Adorno suggests that beauty mediates between subject and object. Beauty is contained in the cognitive or truth-content of works of art. As Adorno writes in Aesthetic Theory: “All beauty reveals itself to persistent analysis” (69). But works of art “are not merely inert objects, valued or known by the subject; rather, they have themselves a subjective moment because they are themselves cognitive” (Jarvis 96). It is in the shared experience of object and subject, the joint analysis, that beauty is revealed.

CONSTELLATION: Adorno borrowed this term from Benjamin. It signifies “a juxtaposed rather than integrated cluster of changing elements that resist reduction to a common denominator, essential core, or generative first principle” (Jay 14-15). This concept can be seen in Adorno’s writing style. Adorno seeks to enact a negative dialectic, in which concepts are not reduced to categorical understandings. By preserving the contradictory and irreconcilable differences of arguments and observations in his work, Adorno maintains the tension between the universal and the particular, between essentialism and nominalism.

CRITICAL THEORY: This is a descriptive term for the philosophical and methodological bases underlying the type of sociology practiced by Adorno and other members of the Frankfurt School. Critical theory is based on the understanding of society as a dialectical entity, and the conviction that “teaching about society can only be developed in the most tightly integrated connection of disciplines; above all, economics, psychology, history and philosophy” (O’Connor 7). It is perhaps easiest to understand what critical theory is by articulating its opposite. During the sixties, the two dominant sociological theories, critical theory and critical rationalism, faced off in what is called the positivist dispute. Adorno’s book The Positivist Dispute in German Sociology is about this debate. Whereas critical rationalism views society as a collection of autonomously determined individuals, critical theory views society as a dialectical totality in which each individual “is determined by its mediation within that totality” (O’Connor 174). These two theories of sociology disagree over the use of empirical research techniques. Critical rationalists believe that identifying and analyzing the opinions of individuals within a society leads to an understanding of the society; critical theorists believe that empirical research techniques cannot give insight into society because they will merely reflect the ideologies that society imposes on individuals. Individuals do not choose ideology; ideology is organically suffused into individuals by the society in which they mature.

NEGATIVE DIALECTICS: Adorno believes that the standard mode of human understanding is identity thinking, which means that a particular object is understood in terms of a universal concept. The meaning of an object is grasped when it has been categorized, subsumed under a general concept heading. In opposition to identity thinking, Adorno posits negative dialectics, or non-identity thinking. He seeks to reveal the falseness of claims of identity thinking by enacting a critical consciousness which perceives that a concept cannot identify its true object. The critic will “assess the relation between concept and object, between the set of properties implied by the concept and the object’s actuality” (Held 215). The consciousness of non-identity thinking reconciles particular and universal without reducing qualities to categories.

UTOPIA: The concept of utopia represents potential. In Adorno’s work, utopia’s “perennial aim is to resist the liquidation of the possibility of really new experience” (Jarvis 222). This is evident in Adorno’s discussion of utopia in relation to art in Aesthetic Theory. What is “new” is only one concretized potential that by its manifestation indicates the existence of the other potentials that have not been realized. Adorno uses the metaphor of a child sitting at a piano “searching for a chord never previously heard. This chord, however, was always there; the possible combinations are limited and actually everything that can be played on it is implicitly given in the keyboard. The new is the longing for the new, not the new itself” (Hullot-Kentor 32). Utopia is the negation of what exists, so that a certain utopia depends upon utopia not actually existing. Once utopia is captured, it can no longer be utopia.

HAMMER, Espen, (2005): Adorno and the Political (Thinking the Political), Oxford: Routledge.

Theodor Adorno was one of the foremost radical thinkers of the Twentieth century. Critic of the Enlightenment, liberalism and modernity, he was the architect behind the famous Frankfurt School of Critical Theory and his work ranged over philosophy, social and cultural theory, art and music. In this lucid book, Espen Hammer critically considers and defends Adorno´s most important contribution: his political thought and it contemporary relevance. Espen Hammer examines the background to Adorno´s thought in the work of Kierkegaard, Marx, Weber and Walter Benjamin and assesses Adorno´s critique of Enlightenment and modernity in his famous work, Dialectic of Enlightenment. He then considers Adorno´s critique of Kant and Hegel and considers Adorno´s celebrated theory of negative dialectics. He defends Adorno´s against Jurgen Habermas´s criticism that Adorno´s thought is irrational and subject-centred before considering how Adorno´s theory of alterity is evident in the work of Derrida and Levinas. Adorno and the Political is an invigorating exploration of a key political thinker and is also a useful introduction to his thought as a whole. It will be of interest to those in philosophy, sociology and politics.

Introduction

1. Permanent Exile: Adorno´s Political Experiences
2. Adorno´s Marxism
3. Approaches to Fascism
4. The Politics of Culture
5. The Persistence of Philosophy
6. The Politics of Aesthetic Negativity
7. The Transformation of Critical Theory
8. Adorno in Contemporary Political Theory

BENJAMIN, Walter, (1998), Izbrani spisi, Ljubljana: Studia Humanitatis.
GADAMER, H.G.,(1977), Verdad y método,
FOUCAULT, Michel, (2008), Seguridad, territorio, población, Madrid: Akal.
FOUCAULT, Michel, (2007), Nacimiento de la biopolítica. Curso en el Collège de France (1978-1979), Buenos Aires: Fondo Cultura Económica.

JAMESON, Frederic, (1991), El posmodernismo o la lógica cultural del capitalismo avanzado, Barcelona: Paidós.
JAMESON, Frederic, (1995), La estética geopolítica. Cine y el espacio en el sistema mundial, Barcelona: Paidós.

Textos:

BENJAMIN, Walter, (1934), (1975), El autor como productor, Madrid: editorial Taurus.