I’m currently finishing my PhD on Adorno, and I’ve always found it quite sad how much of an alienating figure he can be on the left. He is commonly disregarded - often in other fields that philosophy - out of hand, on a surface level engagement with his cultural critiques. These often see him as on overly totalising or cynical thinker. However, most these critics don’t engage with his philosophical methodology, which is fascinating. It was based around trying to synthesise Marxism with what - at the time - was institutionalised philosophical doctrines. The negative dialectic is essentially an effort to try reconcile Ontology with dialectical materialism (with a little bit of Kantian epistemology thrown in the pot). Ie. Adorno - along with the whole Frankfurt school (who I don’t want to downplay, but he wrote the most rigorous text of the bunch) - paved the way for trying to create a truly Marxist philosophical foundation; a truly emancipatory philosophy. His efforts in this have been superceded, in some sense, by many of the French thinkers of the 60-70s, but I think it’s a damn shame how little credit he gets for what - at his time - was a hurculean task of synthesising philosophy with left wing politics.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself in my Adorno stanning, but the crux of my post is this: would anyone be interested in partaking in a reading group on Adorno? Weekly, fortnightly, monthly, whatever works. I’ve dedicated the last bloody 5 years of my life to this guy, and the least I feel I could do with that knowledge is share it with likeminded comrades online and try help people understand this truly amazing (yet difficult) thinker. If there is takers, I’m thinking we will begin with Dialectic of Enlightenment. He co wrote this with Max Horkheimer early(ish) in his career, and it is the best introduction to Adorno, and the thought of the Frankfurt school as a whole. Anyway, let me know what you think comrades! I love you all.

  • NorthStarBolshevik [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    What are the essential texts from the Frankfurt school and other Marxist philosophers of that period? I find those thinkers interesting, but have only really done Wikipedia research so far. I did read the One-Dimensional Man but found it a little difficult.

    • hegel_daddy [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Hey sorry for the late reply, been very busy lately!

      As far as the F.S. goes, Marcuse is a good start. Its worth noting that predominantly the F.S. thinker's were very concerned with the crises of the 20th century (emergent fascism, holocaust, war, etc.) as as such their theories were very concerned with dissecting these. Hence a strong drive to conceptualise and diagnose ideology, social deception, and so on. It's probably best to know your Kant, Hegel and Heidegger going into the F.S., as they engage with these three a lot. Essentially, they are responding to German Idealism (something Heidegger was also responding to, but they critique his method and findings.) Oh, also it is essential to have read your Marx, as they are explicitly trying to further his theory: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 and Capital I would say being the most relevant works, for their discussions of alienation, reification, commodity fetishism, the commodity form and exchange value.

      For readings on the F.S (and adjacents), heres a few goods starts: -Benjamin - The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction -Marcuse - One-Dimensional Man, Eros and Civilization -Horkheimer - Age of Reason, Dialectic of Enlightenment (w/ Adorno) -Adorno - Dialectic of Enlightenment (w/ Horky), The Jargon of Authenticity, Negative Dialectics, Minima Memoria, Aesthetics

      Unfortunately, I don't know my Lukács, Pollock or Fromm well enough, and I am not a fan of Habermas, so don't really wan't to recommend him, hah. However, The Theory of Communicative Action is probably his biggest book if you want to check him out.

      Alternatively, there is a GREAT companion textbook Sage published with a huge amount of articles my contemporary scholars on the F.S., aiming to articulate their theories in a accessible way, and in consideration of social/mistorial progress since their time. I will link it below:

      https://aaaaarg.fail/upload/beverley-best-the-sage-handbook-of-frankfurt-school-critical-theory-1.pdf

      I wold totally recommend this as a starting point! It has enough content to get you informed with all the members of the school, and to also consider how their theories hold up/ are challenged by contemporary developments.