Negative Dialectics

Negative Dialectics
The 1990 Routledge edition
Author	Theodor W. Adorno
Original title	Negative Dialektik
Translator	E. B. Ashton
Language	German
Subject	Philosophy
Publisher	Suhrkamp Verlag
Publication date	1966
Media type	Print

Part of a series on the
Frankfurt School
Major works
Reason and Revolution The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Eclipse of Reason Escape from Freedom Dialectic of Enlightenment Minima Moralia Eros and Civilization One-Dimensional Man Negative Dialectics The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere The Theory of Communicative Action
Notable theorists
Max Horkheimer · Theodor Adorno Herbert Marcuse · Walter Benjamin Erich Fromm · Friedrich Pollock Leo Löwenthal · Jürgen Habermas  · Axel Honneth
Important concepts
Critical theory · Dialectic · Praxis Psychoanalysis · Antipositivism Popular culture · Culture industry Advanced capitalism Privatism · Non-identity Communicative rationality Legitimation crisis
v t e

Negative Dialectics (German: Negative Dialektik) is a 1966 book by Theodor W. Adorno that provides a general account of social criticism under the "fragmenting" conditions of modern rationalization and domination. Based on the Marxist theory of dialectics, Adorno believed that capitalism contained an in-built antithesis what would finally result in the synthesis of socialism. Adorno stated in his earlier work: Minima Moralia (1951), that this antithesis had failed to materialise as Karl Marx stated it would. Adorno, psychoanalytic Marxism targets Capitalism's innately exploitative framework which prevents 'conscious realisation': the proletariats requisite knowledge and desire to overthrow the capitalist system. Capitalism being dynamic in nature, overcomes the original antithetical stage by establishing a defensive ideological blockage. Initailly, Adorno was pessimistic about a solution fearing that forever the proletariat would be alienated and thus insulated by capitalism. However, Adorno theorised that the conception of the antithesis could be adapted and revolutionised. Adorno, proposed a negative dialectic, an emancipatory mechanism which will allow the proletariat to regain requisite knowledge and desire: 'conscious realisation' and therefore, freeing themselves of the insulation condition. It then proceeds as Marx dictated; the antithesis will produce the synthesis leading to the socialist paradigm.

It has had a large impact on cultural criticism, particularly through Adorno's analysis of popular culture and the culture industry.^[1] Its account of dialectics has influenced Joel Kovel^[2] and John Holloway.^[3] Unfortuantely, because of the nature of the English and German languages it has meant that philosophical translation has been problematic. Philosophers frequently note that vast amounts of content have been omitted and often the intended meaning has been lost in the translation from the German to the English edition.

Further reading

• Dennis Redmond's updated translation of Negative Dialectics, with commentary.
• Buck-Morss, Susan. Origin of Negative Dialectics. Free Press, 1979.
• Jameson, Fredric. Late Marxism: Adorno or the Persistence of the Dialectic. Verso, 2007.

References

1. ↑ James Bohman (1999). Robert Audi, ed. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 10. ISBN 0-521-63722-8. 
2. ↑ Kovel, Joel (1991). History and Spirit: An Inquiry into the Philosophy of Liberation. Boston: Beacon Press. p. 261. ISBN 0-8070-2916-5. 
3. ↑ John Holloway. Negativity and Revolution: Adorno and Political Activism (2008) ISBN 978-0-7453-2836-2, ed. with Fernando Matamoros & Sergio Tischler