Continuadores posteriores de la teoría crítica de la sociedad han cuestionado a Adorno por caer en una lógica de la emancipación frustrada aparentemente contradictoria, que reflexiona sobre la dominación social en condiciones bajo las cuales, empero, se declaran cerradas las posibilidades de transformación histórica. Sin embargo, sostengo que su teoría social remite también a un concepto novedoso de la emancipación sin totalidad, relevante para la reconstrucción de la teoría crítica ante los cuestionamientos pluralistas lanzados hacia el concepto de “totalidad”.

El texto se propone exponer críticamente algunos contenidos fundamentales del concepto de totalidad y su importancia para el pensamiento dialéctico. Partiendo de una crítica de la concepción hegeliana de totalidad, busca sin embargo defender este concepto, aunque reconstruido desde un giro materialista a partir de la filosofía desarrollada por Theodor W. Adorno. El concepto de totalidad cambiaría su significado y función a partir de la crítica materialista, pasando de la idea de un todo determinado y definitivo, a un criterio epistemológico (...) y normativo para oponerse con efectividad a la imposición de una totalidad social. (shrink)

A lively and lucid introduction to one of the great Marxist thinkers of the 20th century by the master cultural critic.

This volume makes available in English for the first time Adorno’s lectures on metaphysics. It provides a unique introduction not only to metaphysics but also to Adorno’s own intellectual standpoint, as developed in his major work Negative Dialectics. Metaphysics for Adorno is defined by a central tension between concepts and immediate facts. Adorno traces this dualism back to Aristotle, whom he sees as the founder of metaphysics. In Aristotle it appears as an unresolved tension between form and matter. This basic (...) split, in Adorno’s interpretation, runs right through the history of metaphysics. Perhaps not surprisingly, Adorno finds this tension resolved in the Hegelian dialectic. Underlying this dualism is a further dichotomy, which Adorno sees as essential to metaphysics: while it dissolves belief in transcendental worlds by thought, at the same time it seeks to rescue belief in a reality beyond the empirical, again by thought. It is to this profound ambiguity, for Adorno, that the metaphysical tradition owes its greatness. The major part of these lectures, given by Adorno late in his life, is devoted to a critical exposition of Aristotle’s thought, focusing on its central ambiguities. In the last lectures, Adorno’s attention switches to the question of the relevance of metaphysics today, particularly after the Holocaust. He finds in metaphysical experiences, which transcend rational discourse without lapsing into irrationalism, a last precarious refuge of the humane truth to which his own thought always aspired. This volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in Adorno’s work and will be a valuable text for students and scholars of philosophy and social theory. (shrink)