Adorno and Existence

by Peter E. Gordon

From the beginning to the end of his career, the critical theorist Theodor W. Adorno sustained an....

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published November 14, 2016

About the author

aka Peter Eli Gordon

Peter E. Gordon is the Amabel B. James Professor of History, Faculty Affilitate in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Faculty Affiliate in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University. He works chiefly on themes in Continental philosophy and social thought in Germany and France in the late-modern era, with an emphasis on critical theory, Western Marxism, the Frankfurt School, phenomenology, and existentialism. Primarily a scholar of modern European social theory, he has published major works on Heidegger, the Frankfurt School, Jürgen Habermas, and Theodor W. Adorno.

Reviews

[Zoonanism · Rating 3 out of 5]

Peter Gordon presents a fine analysis of themes which structure Adorno's engagement with the nasty idealists (Kierkegaard, Husserl and Heidegger). The overriding theme is the following : the Bourgeois interior is a nasty cabinet of tendencies for domination and avoidance of the "object".

Yet it's not clear after such convenient labeling and "immanent critique", what Adorno's reason and insight will perform instead. Yes phenomenology is a redundant and circular enterprise. It's not hard though to imagine that besides the bourgeois, brahmins and untouchables too may indulge in conceptual autarky. By the end it does get a bit tiring when having forced oneself to follow Adorno's convoluted syntax one finds little more than an accusation repeated over and over.

[Echo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear and thorough guide to Adorno's critique of existentialism. Very helpful in laying out Adorno's arguments across minor works as well as major.