Ontology and Dialectics 1960-61

by Theodor W. Adorno

Adorno's lectures on ontology and dialectics from 1960-61 comprise his most sustained and systematic analysis of Heidegger's philosophy. They also represent a continuation of a project that Adorno shared with Walter Benjamin - 'to annihilate Heidegger'. Following the publication of Heidegger's magnum opus, Being and Time, and long before his notorious endorsement of Nazism at Freiburg University, both Adorno and Benjamin had already rejected Heidegger's fundamental ontology.

After his return to Germany from his exile in the US, Adorno became Heidegger's intellectual counterpart, engaging more intensively with his work than with that of any other contemporary philosopher. Adorno regarded Heidegger as an extremely limited thinker, and for that reason all the more dangerous. In these lectures, he highlights Heidegger's increasing fixation with the concept of ontology to show that the doctrine of being can only truly be understood through a process of dialectical thinking. Rather than through overt political denunciation, Adorno deftly highlights the connections between Heidegger's philosophy and his political views, and in doing so offers an alternative plea for enlightenment and rationality.

These seminal lectures in which Adorno dissects the thought of the one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century will appeal to students and scholars in philosophy and critical theory and throughout the humanities and social sciences.

Genres: Theory

384 pages, ebook

First published September 11, 2002

About the author

Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno was one of the most important philosophers and social critics in Germany after World War II. Although less well known among anglophone philosophers than his contemporary Hans-Georg Gadamer, Adorno had even greater influence on scholars and intellectuals in postwar Germany. In the 1960s he was the most prominent challenger to both Sir Karl Popper's philosophy of science and Martin Heidegger's philosophy of existence. Jürgen Habermas, Germany's foremost social philosopher after 1970, was Adorno's student and assistant. The scope of Adorno's influence stems from the interdisciplinary character of his research and of the Frankfurt School to which he belonged. It also stems from the thoroughness with which he examined Western philosophical traditions, especially from Kant onward, and the radicalness to his critique of contemporary Western society. He was a seminal social philosopher and a leading member of the first generation of Critical Theory.

Unreliable translations hampered the initial reception of Adorno's published work in English speaking countries. Since the 1990s, however, better translations have appeared, along with newly translated lectures and other posthumous works that are still being published. These materials not only facilitate an emerging assessment of his work in epistemology and ethics but also strengthen an already advanced reception of his work in aesthetics and cultural theory.

Reviews

[Volbet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant critique of Heideggerian phenomenology, ontology and epistemology. While Adorno does a great job at tearing into modern ontology, he does little to establish dialectics as a viable alternative. For that we have to read Negative Dialectics.