Minima Moralia

[Ralph Dumain]

I did read some more chapters of Adorno's NEGATIVE DIALECTICS and made
additional notes.  The first major section after the introductory section is
a protracted critique of Heidegger along with some other thinkers.  I am
much too busy for the next few weeks to continue my thread on this book.
Maybe in a month I will be able to continue.   If anybody cares, my
apologies for not following through.

I finally got a hold again of the copy of MINIMA MORALIA I borrowed.  The
translator is indeed E.F.N. Jephcott.  

Now that I have the book before me again, I can cite some more sections of
it that intrigued me.  Last time I highlighted sections relevant to
intellectual life and the division of labor.  Now I will move on to other
topics.

The next topic that intrigues me is the remarks Adorno makes about
philosophy.  Some samples (section headings followed by pages numbers in
parentheses):

#44 (70-71): Philosophy should break down the instinctive wish to be right
in argumentation.

#45 (71-73): Dialectic opposes reification, but the need to impose
fragmentation should not be confused with the English Hegelian school
(interesting remark!--somebody please expand on this) or Dewey's
pragmatism-- to put things into a harmonious frame of reference reinforcing
common sense.

#46 (73-75): On the morality of thinking, naivete and sophistication.

#50 (80-81):  On the sabotage of thought by the demand for intellectual
honest accountability, and step-by-step proof.

#53 (88-89): Idealism, bombast, and fascism.

#61 (97-98): On Nietzsche's hypocrisy in exposing the pretensions of
theology while upholding an equally obnoxious amor fati.

#82 (126-128): "Keeping one's distance"--critique vs. positivism.

#92 (140-141): "The objective tendency of the Enlightenment, to wipe out the
power of images over man, is not matched by any subjective progress on the
part of enlightened thinking towards freedom from images."

#98: (150-152): "Dialectical thought is an attempt to break through the
coercion of logic by its own means."

#127 (197-199): "Intelligence is a moral category."

#152 (24-247):  On the use and misuse of dialectic.

I would love to see some explication of these rather cryptic passages.