The Sociology of Theodor Adorno

Abstract

Popper (PD 290-1, 298-300) rightly underlined that this dispute involved no positivists. Frisby (PD xxix) saw Adorno as criticising 'a naive positivism. .. hardly at issue amongst. .. the disputants'but, years after Adorno's death, added: 'even though it may remain in operation in much social scientific practice'.

A political‐economic theory of relevance: Explaining climate change inaction

“…Sociology would benefit from renewed attention to the structure and process of economic activity because production and consumption are fundamental requirements for social institutions to exist and reproduce themselves and, further, the dynamics of capitalism deeply impact social relations and consciousness; they determine “the structure of our society down to the level, I would almost say, of the most delicate subjective behaviour” (Adorno, , p. 143). One element of Adorno's critique of phenomenology, discussed below, is its blindness to the way capitalism conditions consciousness down to “the most delicate subjective behaviour” (see Benzer, , Ch. 1), a limitation we seek to close here.…”

“…Capitalism demands a leveling of qualitative differences between objects into commensurable equivalents for the market. This structural necessity, coupled with a need to master reality to survive, conditions a form of thinking that Adorno () terms “identity thinking” or “identification.” Identity thinking is marked by (1) classification or conceptualization (constituting something as an “instance of a kind”) (Stone, , p. 54) and (2) naturalization or ideological reification (“tak[ing] categories produced by humans in society as describing intrinsic, natural properties of objects”) (Benzer, , p. 18). The most important aspect of Adorno's, (, p. 76) analysis of identity thinking for this project is the diagnosis of the ubiquity of instrumental reason , or, when “the instruments or means of thought have become independent of the purposes of thought, have become reified.” The critique of instrumental reason is not a critique of means‐ends rationality per se , but an analysis of the modern inability to set substantive goals through reason and the heightening of means (technological development, economic production) to ends.…”

“…To understand Adorno's critique of phenomenology it is necessary to grasp his theory of society as both an external, reified entity and a humanly‐produced artifact (Adorno, ; Benzer, , Ch. 1).…”

“…Although the negative side of Adorno's critique of phenomenology is usually emphasized (see Section 1), he leaves open the possibility for a critical phenomenological sociology. In an early untranslated critique of Husserl, Adorno argues that “despite phenomenology's failure, its concepts inadvertently offer a diagnosis of capitalist society” (Benzer, , p. 40). More specifically, Adorno sociologizes Husserl's “essence” into a historical category: what is essential to all objects today is the influence of capitalist relations of production (see also Adorno, , pp.…”

“…One goal of this project is to highlight the positive opening Adorno left for a critical phenomenology of capitalism and to bring Adorno into conversation with Schutz, a figure he never deeply engaged (Benzer, , p. 41). This is unfortunate as Adorno briefly but favorably mentions Schutz and Thomas Luckmann, a colleague of both Schutz and Adorno, during the closing of a lecture touching on the limits of positivist methodology.…”