Metaphysical Experience and Constitutive Error in Adorno's “Meditations on Metaphysics”

Abstract

That current ideals of cognition impoverish experience is a classical observation, and complaint, of the early Frankfurt School. Adorno reacts to this phenomenon in several ways, among them his conception of metaphysical experiences. Metaphysical experiences are conventionally understood as promissory notes, as metaphors for rich experiences. This article takes a different view of metaphysical experiences. It discusses them in light of Adorno's notion that objects have priority in experience and of his further remark that metaphysical experiences are constituted by error. It argues that rather than promissory notes or metaphors for rich experiences, metaphysical experiences are attempts at taking things literally.