Towards a sociological anthropology: On Theodor Adorno's Contribution to the Theory of Ideology

Abstract

Adorno's argument in this recently translated essay is that sociology is necessary in order to unlock the ‘epistemological power’ of the concept of ideology. This paper reads Adorno's argument with an Althusserian guilt in order to isolate the theoretically anti-humanist character of this epistemological power. The paper demonstrates how sociology, for Adorno, unlocks this epistemological power by shifting the field of inquiry away from the psychology of the individual subject, towards the “objectively prescribed contexts of delusion” located at the meeting point of specific material social relations. In order to make sense of Adorno's theoretical work here, the paper employs the concept of ‘anthropology’ as developed by Étienne Balibar, in order to demonstrate how Adorno mobilises the concept of ideology in order to think about subjective interpellation in an anti-humanist way, breaking with the vulgar psychology of traditional theories of ideology.