Theodor W. Adorno. Biografia di un intellettuale

by Stefan Müller-Doohm, Barbara Agnese (Translator)

In un'epoca segnata dagli specialismi e dalla frammentazione del sapere, ripercorrere la vicenda biografica di Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno significa confrontarsi con il fascino di un intellettuale che nel suo "Il saggio come forma" (1974) poteva scrivere: 'La curiosità è il principio di piacere del pensiero'. Ma ripercorrere la sua vicenda biografica significa anche confrontarsi con l'"inattualità" di un filosofo che dallo iato fra razionalità e realtà, fra costruzione del concetto e cosa traeva alimento per un desiderio di radicalità e una tensione utopico-dialettica che hanno trovato voce in un peculiare dispositivo di pensieri. Significa infine ridefinire i confini del suo interrogarsi sul senso e sul destino della nostra modernità.

Genres: Philosophy, Biography, Theory

916 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Jarno Mehtiö · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kirja, joka harmittavasti jää usein turhan vaikeaselkoiseksi. Elämänkertaosuus tapahtumien valossa tulee käytyä läpi, mutta siihen oleellisesti liittyvät filosofiset ideat jäävät sellaisen käsittelyn asteelle, joka ei aukea niitä tuntemattomille eikä toisaalta varmasti tarjoa niitä tunteville uutta. Adornon jargonin vielä ollessa kyseessä jälkimmäisiä on varmasti vähemmän kuin ensin mainittuja.

Teoriat käydään läpi pääasiaksi lainaamalla kirjoituksista pätkiä, mutta irrallisina niistä on vaikea saada otetta. Esimerkiksi Frankfurtin koulukunta, kriittinen teoria tai Adornon esteettinen teoria eivät saa selkeää omaa teemakäsittelyään vaan niitä käsitellään ripoteltuna pitkin kirjaa. Kirjan perusteella ei osaisi vastata niitä koskeviin tenttikysymyksiä, ellei samalla tekisi muistiinpanoja ja kirjaisi ylös aina, kun teemoja sivutaan. Sanomattakin on selvää, että yhtäkään filosofian perusteoriaa tai käsitettä ei käydä läpi. Jos lukija ei tunne Kantin transsedentaalista idealismia, Weberin lumousta, atonaalisuuden ja 12-säveljärjestelmän merkitystä, lukeminen on raskasta.

Kauhulla odotan, millainen kirja on Habermasin elämänkerta kirjoittajalta. Senkin ajattelin lukea.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not quite sure why I became interested in Adorno, but I read this book deeply impressed with the man. Not only was he a philosopher but a musician and composer as well. He grew up as Jew in pre-Nazi Germany. He went back to Germany from the U.S. after the war to be a public intellectual.

Being a Marxist, his critique of society was economic based. Although, he was upper-middle class, and quite privileged, he wrote harshly of the bourgeoisie. He just as hard on television for its used to sell commodities, but he couldn't be interrupted during the broadcast of Daktari.

I found his view of the individual in contemporary capitalistic society inspiring. He saw the danger of humans becoming commodities clearly. It is difficult to live in this world wanting to escape it, but unable.

[Günter Wahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno was raised in Frankfurt-Bockenheim in a wine trading business, I think his mother had him from a fence master from Corsica who went to France to fight for France in 1870 she was married in second marriage to the winedealer of considerable wealth, Wiesengrund.

We have a biography of 2003 here while Adorno himself died in ZÜRICH in 1968, his later writings were on music only, I have this in an addition to the complete works, the confrontation were beetween students who wanted practical initiatives towards Vietnam and Adorno who almost had ended writing like he had visited the opera mostly, he tried to write on modern music.