NEGATIVE DIALECTICS (1)

[bj.mail@earthling.net]

Hi all,

> (2) "Once upon a time, compared with sense perception and every kind of
> external experience, it was felt to be the very opposite of naivete; now
it
> has objectively grown as naive in its turn as the seedy scholars speaking
on
> subjective isolation seemed to Goethe ..." (3)
>


I don't also know to which seedy scholars Goethe referred, but I'm wondering
if the translation of the last part is accurate. In original, it sounds:

"... wie Goethe schon vor hundertfuenfzig Jahren die kuemmerlichen
Kandidaten empfand, die subjektiv an der Spekulation sich guetlich taten."

So, Adorno didn't say: "scholars speaking on subjective isolation" but:
"scholars subjectively making use of [or profiting by] speculation" (sorry
for the grammar, eventually).

Imho the guys we're looking for don't speak of subjective isolation or
isolated subjects (who shall have done this?? Leibniz? ;-)  ), but were
swimming in the [idealistic] mainstream. Maybe some smaller Hegel-scholars.

(Btw, Adornos habit of not giving any references [Goethe] surely had a very
negative effect on former and today's recepition of his thoughts. He seems
to adress only the 'Bildungsbuerger', well-educated upperclass people (who
else might know all those subtile implications?) by sorting out the rest who
isn't common with the topics and standards of this habitus. Sorry to grumble
at this, but sometimes it really get on my nerves...)

Greetings,

Benjamin