Adorno's Practical Philosophy: Living Less WronglyAdorno notoriously asserted that there is no 'right' life in our current social world. This assertion has contributed to the widespread perception that his philosophy has no practical import or coherent ethics, and he is often accused of being too negative. Fabian Freyenhagen reconstructs and defends Adorno's practical philosophy in response to these charges. He argues that Adorno's deep pessimism about the contemporary social world is coupled with a strong optimism about human potential, and that this optimism explains his negative views about the social world, and his demand that we resist and change it. He shows that Adorno holds a substantive ethics, albeit one that is minimalist and based on a pluralist conception of the bad - a guide for living less wrongly. His incisive study does much to advance our understanding of Adorno, and is also an important intervention into current debates in moral philosophy. |
Contents
| 1 | |
No right living | 52 |
Social determination and negative freedom | 75 |
Adornos critique of moral philosophy | 101 |
A new categorical imperative | 133 |
An ethics of resistance | 162 |
justification vindication and explanation | 187 |
Negativism defended | 209 |
Adornos negative Aristotelianism | 232 |
The jolt Adorno on spontaneous willing | 255 |
| 271 | |
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Common terms and phrases
according to Adorno account of normativity action Adorno thinks Adorno’s claim Adorno’s philosophy Adorno’s theory Adorno’s view Aphorism Aristotelian Auschwitz become behaviour capitalism capitalist categorical imperative Chapter consciousness context critical reflection critical theory criticise current social world Dialectic of Enlightenment difficult discursive grounding discussion element example experience fact false consciousness find first fit forces of production Hegel human idea immanent immanent critique individual insufficient justification justificatory Kant Kant’s Kantian least lectures live less wrongly matter Minima Moralia modern social world moral demands moral philosophy Moreover nature negative freedom negativism negativistic Nietzsche normative claims one’s particular people’s physical impulses PMP 1956/7 unpublished positive positive freedom possible potential principle problem problematic production question radically evil rational realisation reason recognise resistance responsibility Right Living Thesis sense situation society specific suffering sufficient surplus-value things thought forms translation amended unfreedom virtue wrong