C.T after DoE

[Claus Hansen]

At 01:24 09-04-03 +0000, you wrote:

>Rauno,
>
>This IS precisely the question IMO:
>
>>One might also ask was the idea of critical theory invalidated  in
>> >DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMEN.
>
>My feelings are that the subcategory of critical reason was seen by H & A. 
>to be "infected" with the dialectic of enlightenment ('the seed of 
>reversal') as were other subcategories of Reason. Put simply the entire 
>category of Reason was susceptible to inversion. So Adorno at least turned 
>to art to recover any notion of positive enlightenment.

I don't believe this reading is entirely correct, or even plausible 
considering many of Adornos statements.
It is true that 'critical was infected by the dialectic of enlightenment' 
otherwise it would be impossible to
understand the paradoxical prose and structure of Negative Dialectics. One 
cannot do away the contradictions
rising from wanting to criticise conceptual thinking by way of conceptual 
thinking by a pure act of will.
The contradiction is real not a simple matter of 'bad thinking', however 
the contradiction should not be
hypostatised as some kind of universal ahistorical condition for all future 
thought. This is were Adornos
utopian thinking comes into being - he wanted to 'enlighten the 
enlightenment'.
It is of course correct that Adorno 'turned to art' but this turn should 
again not be misunderstood. It was not
an abandonment of philosophy - because without aesthetics (which is one 
part of philosophy) art works
would not be able to give a 'promise' of some kind of other enlightenment. 
The reason why Adorno put so
much emphasis on the practices of art is that - according to Bernsteins 
reading - this sphere of life is the
only one where there is a 'systematic transformation in the relation 
between concept and object'. This
transformed relation (what one could called a mimetic relationship) is a 
necessary precondition for an
enlightened enlightenment - or a critical reason without the dialectic. It 
is however, not only in artworks
this transformed relationship occurs - again according to Bernstein - it 
does occur in the social world
in what he terms 'fugitive experiences' - and he points to the last chapter 
of Negative Dialectics:
'Mediations on Metaphysics' where Adorno tries to thematise this problem.

Claus


____________________________________________________________________________
"Hos mange mennesker er det allerede en uforskammethed, når de siger 'jeg'" 
(T.W. Adorno)