Einführung in die Dialektik

by Theodor W. Adorno

This volume comprises Adorno's first lectures specifically dedicated to the subject of the dialectic, a concept which has been key to philosophical debate since classical times. While discussing connections with Plato and Kant, Adorno concentrates on the most systematic development of the dialectic in Hegel's philosophy, and its relationship to Marx, as well as elaborating his own conception of dialectical thinking as a critical response to this tradition.Delivered in the summer semester of 1958, these lectures allow Adorno to explore and probe the significant difficulties and challenges this way of thinking posed within the cultural and intellectual context of the post-war period. In this connection he develops the thesis of a complementary relationship between positivist or functionalist approaches, particularly in the social sciences, as well as calling for the renewal of ontological and metaphysical modes of thought which attempt to transcend the abstractness of modern social experience by appeal to regressive philosophical categories. While providing an account of many central themes of Hegelian thought, he also alludes to a whole range of other philosophical, literary and artistic figures of central importance to his conception of critical theory, notably Walter Benjamin and the idea of a constellation of concepts as the model for an 'open or fractured dialectic' beyond the constraints of method and system.These lectures are seasoned with lively anecdotes and personal recollections which allow the reader to glimpse what has been described as the 'workshop' of Adorno's thought. As such, they provide an ideal entry point for all students and scholars in the humanities and social sciences who are interested in Adorno's work as well as those seeking to understand the nature of dialectical thinking.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, Nonfiction

438 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno was one of the most important philosophers and social critics in Germany after World War II. Although less well known among anglophone philosophers than his contemporary Hans-Georg Gadamer, Adorno had even greater influence on scholars and intellectuals in postwar Germany. In the 1960s he was the most prominent challenger to both Sir Karl Popper's philosophy of science and Martin Heidegger's philosophy of existence. Jürgen Habermas, Germany's foremost social philosopher after 1970, was Adorno's student and assistant. The scope of Adorno's influence stems from the interdisciplinary character of his research and of the Frankfurt School to which he belonged. It also stems from the thoroughness with which he examined Western philosophical traditions, especially from Kant onward, and the radicalness to his critique of contemporary Western society. He was a seminal social philosopher and a leading member of the first generation of Critical Theory.

Unreliable translations hampered the initial reception of Adorno's published work in English speaking countries. Since the 1990s, however, better translations have appeared, along with newly translated lectures and other posthumous works that are still being published. These materials not only facilitate an emerging assessment of his work in epistemology and ethics but also strengthen an already advanced reception of his work in aesthetics and cultural theory.

Reviews

[Karl Hallbjörnsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adorno was a real bad bitch, a real thot. These lectures are crazy — I can't imagine anyone actually speaking like he does in the transcript — it's just such a complex and convoluted manner of speech! Not that I'm criticizing him for it — I'm simply in awe.

I'd definitely recommend this to anyone interested in reading a little more Adorno or anyone interested in learning more about the very multifaceted and complex concept of dialectics. However, I wouldn't go so far as to call this an introduction — it's pretty in-depth — or at least I felt it to be after the first few lectures included in the book.

Still, a great read. Really enjoyed ruminating over it.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

pretty sure i would've failed this course

[Enrique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorno is of all twenty century philosophers, one of the most completes. He knows a lot of music, a lot of literature, but also made empirical research (his authoritarian personality study is a classic still quoted even by top experts like Robert Sapolsky), sociological investigation, and cultural studies. He is clearly very pretentious, and I’m sure that his personality would not help him (everybody in Frankfurt school hates him, even Benjamin couldn’t stand his inflexible character)

Besides that this guy have something to say. I’m very surprised that Lee Smolin theory of quantum gravity as a process, with natural laws always changing was formulated here by Theodor Adorno, using only good old Hegel philosophy. But most interesting: Adorno doesn’t found the network theory so compelling as Smolin see it: Adorno gives a kafkian turn to the situation, a very interesting one and I think much more true perspective about the complexity of the world.

The book is repetitive, you can figure out the last seminars without much to add. Anyway the dialectic method is made more clear, specially because Adorno give us examples, something that Hegel didn’t want to offer.

Adorno even made critique of science, but a better one than that of Heidegger. And this is because Adorno Walk the walk of science: Heidegger never tried to do science at all, his critique is still mere theory, he didn’t offer a good perspective of what science could do. Adorno by contrasts have good examples of his own research, and tries to show how science is failing in his own game.

Excellent read.

[An · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aquest llibre és una transcripció de vint classes impartides per Adorno sobre dialèctica el 1958. La dialèctica explicada és fonamentalment la dialèctica "del Hegel" d'Adorno. És a dir, un Hegel de la negativitat on l'escepticisme envers les filosofies primeres (això és, les filosofies que assumeixen la totalitat abans d'explicar-la mitjançant la postulació de quelcom primer del qual sil·logísticament es deriva la resta) ha de portar a la superació de les filosofies últimes (com la de Hegel). Així, l'exposició de la dialèctica hegeliana acaba transcendint-la entreveient-se el que en aquell moment encara un projecte futur per a Adorno: la seva dialèctica negativa.

Aquestes classes tenen la característica diferencial respecte d'altres textos de l'autor que són molt pedagògiques i molt més accessibles que la majoria d'escrits. La crítica a Hegel és també dialèctica. És una crítica immanent que troba en la dialèctica hegeliana un impuls contra si mateixa, una comprensió de la no-identitat en el pensament que impedeix una resolució final d'allò contradictori.

L'exposició explícita sobre la dialèctica és implícitament dialèctica, és a dir, procedeix formalment segons el contingut exposat (sent la separació de forma i contingut dialècticament problemàtica). Per tant, ni es pot començar d'un punt fix ni pot l'exposició estar acabada. Un pensar compromés amb el seu objecte ni el pot subsumir a un conjunt de categories pressuposades ni pot aprehendre immediatament l'objecte.

Fins aquí. No diré res més sobre què és la dialèctica perquè resumir i ordenar idees, d'alguna manera, és procedir de forma adialèctica.

I petonets! Petonets que medien entre tu i jo, però no com un punt mitjà entre dos extrems, sinó com un entrar pacientment a un extrem per trobar-hi immanent al seu contrari.

[Tylor Lovins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most important book on philosophy and the thinking activity that I have ever read.

[Wan Feng An · Rating 3 out of 5]

Blud spoke for 20 lectures, 336 pages, approximately 2 weeks of my life, to introduce dialectics. This is the hardest book I have ever read - the run on sentences are crazy, bro doesn't ever give a general method(because that is undialectical), casually uses Greek and Latin which is left untranslated, and the footnotes are as long as the lectures themselves. All in all, an interesting read with some great ideas but I have been turned away from ever reading Hegel.

[Gonzalo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Por respeto a lo que Adorno trata de transmitir en estas lecciones, sobre todo en lo referente a la definición y el ejemplo, concebidos dentro del pensamiento contemporáneo, como incompatibles dentro del pensar dialéctico; no abordaré esta valoración desde de una perspectiva que pretenda resumir o definir lo que el libro propone.

Destacaré la brillantez con la que el autor consigue exponer un pensamiento tan escurridizo y contradictorio, apoyándose, y a su vez sin caer, en los prejuicios en los que inevitablemente cae el pensamiento positivista y/u ontológico que domina el pensamiento contemporáneo. También, desde un punto de vista subjetivo, quiero destacar la revolución que ha implicado en mi proceso de intelección conforme iba avanzando en las lecciones, y que inevitablemente me ha llevado a replantearme conceptos que tenia como inmanentes.

“La dialéctica no es la tentativa esquemática, mecánica, de acercar un todo desde afuera para entender el fenómeno porque a partir de sí mismo no se le puede entender, sino que se trata de echar luz sobre el fenómeno singular de tal manera permanecer en el fenómeno, determinar el fenómeno hasta que por esta determinación en si se exceda a si mismo, volviéndose transparente contra ese todo, contra esa violencia, contra ese sistema dentro del cual y solo allí encuentra su valor relativo. Esto es entonces, dicho concretamente, el requerimiento que nos plantea realmente el pensar dialéctico como científicos ingenuos; por un lado, que no nos detengamos en los fenómenos singulares que no sean dados como si fuéramos rígidos expertos, sino que los conozcamos dentro de la totalidad en las que pueden actuar y recibir su significado, pero por otro lado que no importa si no vemos tampoco esta totalidad este todo en dónde estamos, que no nos acerquemos a él despóticamente desde afuera sino que tratemos de realizar ese tránsito siempre desde la cosa”

[Jade Aslain · Rating 5 out of 5]

That last lecture was really the best. I mean it gets better and better the whole way through, especially in the last few lectures, but he really saved the best for last. It seems like every time I read a book from Adorno I shit myself, but now this one... If you are one of those readers who wants to read one and only one book from this philosopher and then be done with him, please for the love of God let this be the one.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

“the passage into untruth inhabits truth itself ,as its fate, as its curse, as the mark of the context of guilt in which it stands; and likewise the path which truth itself traverses—and truth is indeed a process—is solely a path through untruth”

Adorno’s modestly titled An Introduction to Dialectics is, fittingly enough, about as dialectical in form as it is in content. In every lecture, Adorno “defines” dialectic in a number of ways, each different—some more metaphorical, some more technical, some more laconic, some more elaborate—yet all commensurate to the concept itself. It sometimes feels as though Adorno is mapping the surface of some non-euclidian object, where each approach, each formulation dynamically intercalates and informs the concept. This is all in perfect harmony with the core of Adorno’s logical impetus – that the one-sided, particular judgement harbours falsity, that it must, if it is to be the vector of truth, logically come into contradiction with itself. Knowledge demands the iterative tarrying with the negative, measuring thought to its object in such a way that the concept is recalibrated through its self-othering.

It is no accident that this bears a resemblance to the process of Hegel’s Phenomenology, which finally attains the Absolute, the perspective of the Whole, in its recollection of all its previous failures. Each particular account of “what dialectic is” terminates in a limited falsehood, only painting the full picture when the reader reaches end of the series and reflects on the multitude of determinations as the effect of the force-field, the void that is the “essence” of dialectical thinking.

One would not unjustly retitle this series “An Introduction to Hegelian Dialectics”; Hegel is, naturally, the principal figure of Adorno’s attention. If you find his reading of Hegel as the thinker of the Absolute in History troublesome, fret not – when it comes to Hegel’s dialectical logic, Adorno is truly in his element. He swims through it with exquisite deftness, with the ‘playful superiority’ demanded by dialectical thought, like an analytical knife through conceptual butter.

Adorno rightly emphasises just how crucial immanent critique is to the process of dialectical thought. By importing external criteria, thought betrays its object and corrupts the possibility of driving itself into contradiction with it, lording the conceptual over the material and thereby trading knowledge for categorisation. For Adorno, gazing upon the object with a discerning eye and an open mind is simply not sufficient, at least insofar as dialectical thought is concerned. One must, in a moment of quasi-religious abandon, open oneself up to the object, discovering the universal within the particular by giving life to the dynamic, “soaring” possibility of thought.

As much as he would resent the accusation, there really is something almost theurgical—dare I say animistic—in Adorno’s thinking here: the object is, in its immediacy, apprehended as the inanimate, inert repository of the hidden universal; only through disciplined dialectical thought can it be coaxed to speak. There is most certainly a great degree of truth to this, especially alongside Adorno’s contention that it is in the contradictions, the tensions riven throughout the most inconspicuous and seemingly insignificant particulars—those objects that, in Adorno’s terms, have not yet been saturated by the official categories of thought—that we are most likely to find universal alive and well (as any reader of Zizek will know).

With Hegel, the dialectic broke free of the gravity to which it was enchained in Kant. Where Kant saw the absolute limit beyond which pure reason devolves into madness, Hegel saw the rubicon thought cannot but cross if it is to apprehend truth. Kant flees contradiction like the plague, Hegel embraces contradiction and raises it to self-consciousness. What Kant failed to realise is that, merely by positing the beyond of thought, by drawing the line of separation between the phenomenon and the noumenon, the limit had, in actual fact, already been crossed.

Indeed, Adorno identifies this moment as the fundamental contradiction from which self-reflective, post-Kantian thought departed, mediating the out-there of the limit through the this-here of the subject. For Hegel, contradiction is not merely one form of logical appearance amongst many, and neither is it just a contingent phenomena born out by our mistaken apprehensions – rather, it is the form in which noēsis noēseos appears, the only mode through which truth—the absolute—might be grasped.

Given as this is Adorno we’re talking about, it should be no surprise that the dynamics of the dialectic are routinely brought into conversation with processes of reification. Indeed, for those of us with an eye to the inexorable interaction of praxis and theory, this should be the most natural connection in the world. If dialectic is conceived in the vein of Hegel and Adorno as the only way to truly apprehend the object as a moment of the whole, permeating the sclerotic givenness of thought with the emancipatory verve of mediation, thereby allowing the object to bear the truth of its contradictions under the pressure of the negative, then it is precisely the tool thought requires in the face of a reified world.

What I love about Adorno is that, in spite of his reputation as Marxist materialism’s enemy from within, his thinking is never far from problematics of the labour process. Not only does he take the “labour” of the dialectic literally, but his theory of reification is perhaps the most materialistically grounded of all his contemporaries, recognising the ossification of reality as no mere illusion, but a real abstraction, a process coextensive with dead labour congealed in the value form. Dialectical thinking may be the solvent for reification in thought, but the fetishised world itself can be neither transformed nor transcended without the transformation and transcendence of the reigning relations of production.

[Pablo · Rating 5 out of 5]

En estas transcripciones de las clases de Introducción al Pensamiento Dialéctico de Theodor Adorno, el autor intenta dar una hoja de ruta de su aproximación a la dialéctica, describiéndola sucintamente como una dialéctica no-idealista y negativa. Sin meterme mucho en los pormenores de la relación entre el pensamiento de Adorno y de Hegel, que tendría que tener un doctorado, debo decir que me siento muy afín a la visión de Adorno aquí expuesta y en muchos pasajes me ha brindado de nuevas herramientas para desplegar una manera de pensar a la que creo adherir desde antes de leer este libro y que hoy, gracias a Adorno, cuenta con bases mucho más solidas. Libro clave para cualquier estudiante de filosofía (de facultad o amateur).

[annaïs mm · Rating 5 out of 5]

encantadíssima de comentar que ja m'han donat el carnet de pretenciosa!!!! (esbroma l'he de llegir dos cops més per acabar de entendre tot el que planteja)

[Durakov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like others, I feel like "Introduction" really depends on a few prerequisites. I don't think this would make much sense unless you know some Aristotle (specifically his logic and physics/metaphysics), Kant (Critique of Pure Reason mostly), and have read at least one major text by Hegel (Adorno mostly references the Phenomenology and Science of Logic, but I think you would be fine with just one or most of one). Familiarity with sociology, Descartes, and Spinoza wouldn't hurt either.

Even if you skimmed and didn't fully grasp all of the above, you could get a lot out of this book. Hegel is important because he's the figure whose work is primarily in question; the rest are important mostly by way of contrast. It's hard to understand the stakes of this without being aware of other ways of doing philosophy and thinking. The book is presented clearly even though some lectures are quite dense. But these are difficult because the ideas are difficult, not the style or presentation. This was for sure the clearest presentation of dialectics I've read thus far. That being said, the repetition of certain points that I'd already grasped the first or second time around was sometimes helpful, but sometimes bothersome, in my view.

[Spoust1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be one of the best texts on what it means to think dialectically. Its form — a series of lectures — is a benefit and a drawback: a benefit because it means Adorno is at his clearest; a drawback because it means there is some repetition, as each chapter goes over what came before it. For anyone wanting an understanding of dialectics that goes beyond thesis-antithesis-synthesis, this is the place to start.

[derris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did not read the whole thing, but his explanation of Hegel is incredibly illuminating. I stopped reading once he got into the minutia of distinguishing Hegel from Marx, but I will return to this for sure.

[Carlos García · Rating 5 out of 5]

Después de dos años que lo dejé porque me parecía imposible, regresé y lo vencí. Y aunque sé que probablemente aún pueda sacar más de él, me siento bien por el progreso que he tenido

[SweetCorn03]

this does what it says on the tin

[David Warriner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very tough read at the beginning but Adornos consistency makes figuring stuff out very easy for my amateur self

[melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was no introduction..

[Alex Qanbery · Rating 5 out of 5]

No babe I love your metaphysics, the positivistic ones scare me. Also I became dumber after reading this

[Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

por que

[Juli4n]

Madman