تئودور آدورنو در این کتاب، برحسب قرائت خاص خودش از ایدئالیسم آلمانی به طور کلی و فلسفه هگل به طور خاص، آن هم قرائتی که به اقتضای فشردگیِ فضای نوشتار هیچگاه آنقدرها بسط نمییابد و صرفاً به اشاره برگزار میشود، پارهای از تعیینکنندهترین پروبلماتیکهای فلسفه هگل ــ و نیز دیگر فلسفههای ایدئالیسم آلمانی: کانت، فیشته و شلینگ ــ را برجسته میکند، و البته بهسرعت از روی آنها میپرد، تا در نهایت گرهگاههای این فلسفه را به یکدیگر وصل کند و انسجام منطقی آن و در عین حال تنش درونیاش را نشان دهد.
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.
آدورنو در این خطابهگونه همچون یک مدیوم [واسطه] عمل میکند که هگل را درون خودش احضار کرده است و شاید همین رویکرد نمونهای عالی از ابژکتیویتهای است که مدام از آن دم میزند؛ اما گاهی سُکر و وجدِ این حضور با حملهی هگلِ درونِ آدورنو به آسیابهای بادی همراه میشود.