This volume comprises one of the key lecture courses leading up to the
publication in 1966 of Adorno's major work, Negative Dialectics. These
lectures focus on developing the concepts critical to the introductory
section of that book. They show Adorno as an embattled philosopher
defining his own methodology among the prevailing trends of the time.
As a critical theorist, he repudiated the worn-out Marxist stereotypes
still dominant in the Soviet bloc – he specifically addresses his
remarks to students who had escaped from the East in the period
leading up to the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Influenced as
he was by the empirical schools of thought he had encountered in the
United States, he nevertheless continued to resist what he saw as
their surrender to scientific and mathematical abstraction. However,
their influence was potent enough to prevent him from reverting to the
traditional idealisms still prevalent in Germany, or to their latest
manifestations in the shape of the new ontology of Heidegger and his
disciples. Instead, he attempts to define, perhaps more simply and
fully than in the final published version, a ‘negative', i.e.
critical, approach to philosophy. Permeating the whole book is
Adorno’s sense of the overwhelming power of totalizing, dominating
systems in the post-Auschwitz world. Intellectual negativity,
therefore, commits him to the stubborn defence of individuals – both
facts and people – who stubbornly refuse to become integrated into
‘the administered world’. These lectures reveal Adorno to be a
lively and engaging lecturer. He makes serious demands on his
listeners but always manages to enliven his arguments with
observations on philosophers and writers such as Proust and Brecht and
comments on current events. Heavy intellectual artillery is combined
with a concern for his students’ progress.
Les mer
Fragments of a Lecture Course 1965/1966
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780745694573
Publisert
2018
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Wiley Professional, Reference & Trade
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter