Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 22:37:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ralph Dumain <rdumain-AT-igc.apc.org>
Subject: Re: PHILOSOPHY & THE DIVISION OF LABOR


Thanks so much to Ken Kubota for his response to my old query, which I
thought had been forgotten and would thus have to take the initiative to
revive.  Of the few responses I received publicly and privately, all pointed
to Adorno and virtually all to MINIMA MORALIA, which I have started reading.
Otherwise, I received references to DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT and NEGATIVE
DIALECTICS, and a reference to Wiggershaus' THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL.  Then
nothing but complete silence until now. 

>From my exposure to some of Adorno's essays, I notice he doesn't cut the
intellectuals any slack or treat them as privileged characters, esp. in the
form of academics.  He also seems to have some sympathy for the masses as
the victims of domination.  However, I have also seen no indication that he
grants the possibility that the masses have escaped some forms of
indoctrination that the intellectuals have not (as Chomsky for example would
claim), or that the masses might have knowledge, apart from the particular
skills they would be expected to have depending on their work and hobbies,
that the intellectuals do not.  That is, to what extent would Adorno
recognize non-intellectuals as capable of the embodiment of culture and
universality?

Curious how nobody has had anything to say about the other Frankfurters
(except Horkheimer in conjunction with Adorno).

Perhaps then I should expand my inquiry to Lukacs and then to all of Western
Marxism.  

Of course I know that Gramsci is famous for his writings on intellectuals,
which I have yet to assimilate.  I wonder if even he addressed the problem
from the precise angle that concerns me.  From what I understand of the
concept of "organic intellectuals", it is not a notion that seems relevant
to my concerns, esp. since I don't believe in any such animal as applicable
to conditions in the USA.

So unless anyone feels they can say something specific about Gramsci that
will ring my chimes, let's forget him and see what the other Frankfurters,
Lukacs, Hegelian Marxists, and others have to say, if anything, that
addresses the concerns of my query.