Negative dialectic

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Negative Dialectic is the title of a work by the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno published in 1966 and is considered to be his most important contribution to philosophy . Adorno regarded it as one of the main works of his oeuvre, with which he ties in with the project of a " dialectical logic " developed together with Max Horkheimer in the 1930s .

According to Günter Figal , nowhere else does Adorno get involved “in such detail in systematic discussions and in dealing with basic philosophical positions” without the book being a systematic draft in the classical sense, but rather a “ methodology ” of his “material work”.

content

Adorno himself describes negative dialectics as follows: “It is a draft of a philosophy that does not presuppose the concept of the identity of being and thinking and does not terminate in it, but which is precisely the opposite, i.e. the separation of concept and thing, of subject and object, and their irreconciliation, wants to articulate. "

The “separation of concept and thing” means that the identification (equation, literally: equalization) of a thing with a concept is based on the fact that the commonalities of different things are understood as their essence, and the identification with it something of the Identity cuts off. If people abstract into concepts, they exert a compulsion on things that results from this non-identity of thing and concept. With the Negative Dialectic, Adorno describes a philosophical critique of this kind of identifying thinking. He understands the method, which asks about the difference between concept and thing, also as a socially critical method, since in his opinion the concepts are based on social standards and are therefore part of a total delusion context (compare the article Critical Theory ). At the Hegelian dialectic criticized Adorno that affirmation ( affirmation ) not from the negation of the negation (from the negation of the negation is to get): As the name of the nonidentical in turn is a term that the nonidentical can not fully covered itself; the contradiction resulting from the non-identity cannot therefore be resolved synthetically on a higher level , but embodies - according to Adorno - absolute, irreconcilable opposites that would be evoked by conceptual thinking. The incompleteness (the non-identity) of the concept of the “non-identical” makes critical self-reflection of the dialectical thinker necessary. But: "Self-reflection of the Enlightenment is not its revocation." Adorno warns in particular against absolute negativity, since this, as an affirmation of the negation, is itself positive and thus revokes the negation.

References to other works

In the negative dialectic Adorno sees the fundamental considerations that are carried out in a great many of his material, content-related works. In fact, the approach described in it can also be found in other works, including earlier ones, such as the Dialectic of Enlightenment written together with Max Horkheimer , as well as in the Minima Moralia . But the approach of negative dialectics can also be found in works that are not primarily philosophical in content, such as in the Notes on Literature or in Sociological Writings I. The essay on the relationship between sociology and psychology provides one of many examples of how Adorno questions the truth of social categories with negative dialectics.

Effect and criticism

Adorno conceived the negative dialectic as his main philosophical work. It is considered fundamental to understanding Adorno's philosophy. Gershom Scholem called the negative dialectic the "most chaste defense of metaphysics". Since negative dialectic is not just the title of a work by Adorno, but also describes Adorno's philosophy as a programmatic term, the effect of negative dialectic can only be described if it is seen in the context of Adorno's work. (For a presentation of the criticism of this context, see also the article Theodor W. Adorno and the articles on the Dialectic of Enlightenment and Critical Theory .) The criticism of Adorno often refers to the thinking described in this book without explicitly referring to the work Reference negative dialectic .

expenditure

  • Negative dialectic . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1966 (first edition)
  • Collected Writings , Volume 6: Negative Dialectics. Jargon of authenticity . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970
  • Lecture on negative dialectics. Fragments for the lecture 1965/66 . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2007

Secondary literature

  • Ulrich Müller: Theodor W. Adorno's “Negative Dialectic” . WBG, Darmstadt 2006.
  • Brian O'Connor: Adorno's Negative Dialectic. Philosophy and the Possibility of Critical Rationality . Cambridge 2005.
  • Marc Nicolas Sommer: The Concept of a Negative Dialectic. Adorno and Hegel . Tübingen 2016.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Figal: Entry Negative Dialectic . In: Franco Volpi (Hrsg.): Großes Werklexikon der Philosophie . Kröner, Stuttgart 2004, p. 10.
  2. ^ Theodor W. Adorno: Lecture on Negative Dialectics. Fragments for the lecture 1965/66 . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 15f.
  3. ↑ Theodor W. Adorno: Collected Writings , Volume 6: Negative Dialektik. Jargon of authenticity . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1970, p. 160.
  4. ^ Theodor W. Adorno: Lecture on Negative Dialectics. Fragments for the lecture 1965/66 . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 15.
  5. ↑ For example, in the aphorism Before Abuse is warned , in which Adorno describes that the truth and falsehood of the dialectic, which emerged from sophism as a "means to keep right, from the beginning also one to rule", is in its historical process be found: “The negative philosophy, universal dissolution, always dissolves the dissolving itself. But the new form, in which it claims to abolish both the dissolved and the dissolving, can never emerge in its pure form in antagonistic society. As long as rule is reproduced, the old quality comes to light again in the raw form in the dissolution of what is dissolving. ”In: Theodor W. Adorno: Minima Moralia. Reflections from the damaged life . Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin and Frankfurt am Main 1951, p. 475f.
  6. ↑ for example in the essay on a portrait of Thomas Mann in Theodor W. Adorno: Notes on Literature . Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1981, pp. 335-344
  7. ^ Theodor W. Adorno: On the relationship between sociology and psychology . In: Theodor W. Adorno: Social theory and cultural criticism . edition Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1975
  8. ↑ "This program is summarized in the title of a book that is certainly not Adorno's best, but philosophically his most important: Negative Dialectic." Günter Figal: About the non-identical. On the dialectic of Theodor W. Adornos . In: Wolfram Ette et al. (Ed.): Adorno im Widerstreit. To the presence of his thinking . Alber, Freiburg and Munich 2004, p. 15f.
  9. ↑ "The critical negativity that underlies Adorno's philosophy [...]" Ludger Heidbrink: The limits of critical negativity. Perspectives following Adorno . In: Wolfram Ette et al. (Ed.): Adorno im Widerstreit. To the presence of his thinking . Alber, Freiburg and Munich 2004, p. 98
  10. ^ Rudolf zur Lippe : On the language of Adornos. Solon-line, March 2, 2013, accessed September 19, 2014 . See also Stefan Müller-Doohm: Adorno. A biography . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 663.