Adorno’s ends of philosophy and the future of critical theory

Abstract

Adorno's ends of philosophy and the future of critical theory Darrow Schecter Critical Theory in the Twenty-First Century, Bloomsbury: London, 2013; vii + 218 pp.: 9781441105462, 20[pounds sterling] (pbk) Andrew Bowie Adorno and the Ends of Philosophy, Cambridge: Polity, 2013; ix + 206 pp.: 9780745671598, 18 [pounds sterling] (pbk) Darrow Schecter and Andrew Bowie discuss a similar question: what is the future of critical theory and philosophy? The former takes a more sociological perspective, while the latter's perspective is more philosophical. Schecter begins by highlighting the move from a linguistic towards a literary turn in recent critical thinking, as found, for example, in Jameson's readings of Marx, Adorno and Derrida. Against Nancy Fraser's much debated ethics of distribution versus Hegel/Honneth's ethics of recognition (Fraser & Flonneth 2003), the book argues, 'human emancipation has broader connotations than simply redistributive justice' (p. 18). This also means that critical-intellectual exchange is ideally conducted in the Hegelian realm of freedom. Excluded from this are highly structured institutions such as, for example, workplace, scientific laboratory and other settings in which a competence-based hierarchy is used rather than an assembly of equals (Diefenbach 2013). These ethical demands--freedom, no hierarchies, and an assembly of equals--carry connotations to modern civil societies that have been a product of the modern world linked to what Hegel once called Sittlichkeit or ethical life. What Hegel meant by this has been explained in a not-yet translated but most insightful text on 'Hegels System der Sittlichkeit' (Schmidt 2007). On that reading, the individual and subjective dimension of a Hegelian dialectic has not only been somewhat understated by Adorno, but has also given rise to 'largely academic theories of recognition' (p. 44). Nonetheless, the 'Hegel-Marx-Adorno' dialogue on what might be termed 'recognition-vs.-distribution' remains of great interest to contemporary critical theory. As a consequence of a possible outcome of such a dialogue, it remains somewhat insufficient simply to realise that theorists must be reflexive. Critical theory must reach beyond that and be reflective in a dialectical-critical way that includes contemporary conceptions of critique (Klikauer 2014a). This can achieve things that traditional theory could not and can never achieve. It can combine dialectical materialism after Marx with other prominent approaches to social research. Perhaps critical realism might be one of the closest, with certain versions of system theory being other likely candidates. Since there has been a lifetime of Luhmann-Habermas exchanges, perhaps a highly pluralist version of system theory can be taken somewhat more seriously by critical theorists than had been the case in the past. Unlike many more traditional theories--including system theory--critical theory remains committed to immanent critique and non-dogmatic objectivity. It is for this reason that critical theory has never and can never abandon the Enlightenment ideal of a rational society free of prejudice, obscurantism and the arbitrary exercise of power. Aligned to that is the fact that critical theory analyses how reason, obscurantism and the arbitrary exercise of power actually function in liberal-democratic and post-liberal-democratic societies, examining the underlying structure, namely capitalism itself. Hence critical theory continues to investigate the capitalism-society dialectic and current forms of populism and hegemony designed to undermine democracy. One of the key ideologies that undermine democracy is what Adorno calls 'identity thinking', e.g. identifying as real in society only that which harmonises and fits with dominant concepts. Hence, non-identity thinking can begin by pointing out the anthropological assumptions underlying the contemporary liberal-democratic conceptions of a mass-mediated unity designed to eclipse the inherent contradictions and pathologies found in capitalism and contemporary society. …