ADORNO ONE LAST TIME

[Dennis R Redmond]

On Sat, 12 Feb 2000, Richard A. Lee wrote:

> I have also understood Adorno to maintain, throughout "Negative Dialectics"
> that Hegel's logic is the logic of capital, of the commodity form.  In that
> sense, Adorno's thought is determined by the logic which he finds already
> operative in the socio-economic sphere.

Well, yes, but it depends on what you mean by "determined" -- one of
Adorno's points is that we have to think not in terms of a single logic
(which does exist: that of transnational accumulation) but in terms of
multiple logics (a cultural logic, a social logic, political logics,
etc.), which contradict one another, disagree, fight for cultural and
social influence, etc. Adorno says on ND:398 that "It lies in the
constitution of negative dialectics, that it is never content to rest
within itself, as if it were total; that is its form of hope." In other
words, we have to think the total system, in all its dazzling, dizzying
complexity, in order to think *against* such, while avoiding the mistake
of the idealists, i.e. confusing our concepts with the reality itself.
Concepts are approximations, tools, heuristics which can always be
improved, refined, upgraded and expanded; so there's a level of
intellectual gruntwork here which is crucial, which can't be wished away
by revolutionary appeals.

-- Dennis