Note on ten theses on Adorno’s “utopia of knowledge”

Authors

  • Miriam Mesquita-Sampaio de Madureira UAM-C

Keywords:

Negative Dialectics, utopia of knowledge, Enlightenment rationality, identification, Adorno

Abstract

In the “Introduction” to his Negative Dialectics, Theodor Adorno formulates what the result of his “negative” dialectics should as a “utopia of knowledge” (Utopie der Erkenntnis): “The utopia of knowledge would consist in comprehending the non-conceptual through concepts [but] without equating it to them” (ND 21). In this way, Adorno seeks to construct an alternative to the conception of knowledge based on Enlightenment rationality, what he describes as knowledge as identification; that is, “Thinking means identifying” (ND 17). Through a series of theses, this essay develops the double meaning that the notion of a utopia of knowledge may have had for Adorno, as well as the meaning of this double character.

Author Biography

Miriam Mesquita-Sampaio de Madureira, UAM-C

Es profesora-investigadora Titular C de tiempo completo del Departamento de Humanidades de la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Cuajimalpa. Ha estudiado Ciencias Sociales en la Universidade de São Paulo (Bacharel em C. Sociais), y Filosofía en la Eberard-Karls Universität de Tübingen (Magistra Artium) y es doctora en Filosofía por la Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität de Frankfurt am Main. Es autora de los libros Leben und Zeitkritik in Hegels frühen Schriften (Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang, 2005) y Kommunikative Gleichheit (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2014), editora (con Bernardo Bolaños Guerra) de Autoconocimiento y reflexividad. Perspectivas contemporáneas (México: UAM/Juan Pablos, 2011) y (con Maximiliano Martínez) de Lecciones de Filosofía Moral (México: UAM, 2014), y autora, además, de diversos artículos de investigación. Es miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (Nivel I).

References

Adorno, Th. W. & Horkeimer, M. (1990). Dialektik der Aufklärung. Philosophische Fragmente. Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer.

Adorno, T. W. (1996). Negative Dialektik, en Gesammelte Schriften, V.6. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

Adorno, T. W. (2001). Minima Moralia. Reflexionen aus dem beschädigten Leben. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

Hegel, G.W.F. (1986a). Phänomenologie des Geistes, en: id.: Werke. V.3. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp,.

Hegel, G.W.F. (1986b). Frühe Schriften, en: id.: Werke. V.1. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp.

Honneth, A. (2007). "Gerechtigkeit im Vollzug. Adornos Einleitung in die Negative Dialektik", en: id.: Pathologien der Vernunft. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, pp. 93-111.

Seel, M. (2004). "Anerkennende Erkenntnis. Eine normative Theorie des Gebrauchs von Begriffen", en: id.: Adornos Philosophie der Kontemplation. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp, pp. 42-63.

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Published

2016-07-15

How to Cite

Mesquita-Sampaio de Madureira, M. (2016). Note on ten theses on Adorno’s “utopia of knowledge”. Devenires, 17(34), 255–269. Retrieved from https://publicaciones.umich.mx/revistas/devenires/ojs/article/view/243

Issue

No. 34 (2016)

Section

Dossier

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Copyright (c) 2016 UMSNH

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