Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 08:42:00 -0500 (EST)
From: Andrew Perrin <andrew_perrin-AT-unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Adorno's pessimism?


It's been a while since I read it, but I remember somewhere (maybe a
footnote?) in Susan Buck-Morss's _The Origins of Negative Dialectics_ an
anecdote in which Horkheimer accuses Adorno of unfounded pessimism, and
Adorno responds that the real pessimism is in not exploring the negative
moments of dialectics -- that is, that Horkheimer is, in fact, in the
pessimistic position. This underlies the possibility, it seems to me, that
the very concept of "pessimism" is undialectical and, therefore, rather
un-Frankfurt-ish.

ap

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J Perrin - andrew_perrin-AT-unc.edu - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
 Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
      269 Hamilton Hall, CB#3210, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210 USA


On Mon, 25 Mar 2002, matthew piscioneri wrote:

> Dear List,
> 
> It has become almost a cliche to talk of Adorno's _Negative Dialectics_  as 
> *despairing* or *bleak* notwithstanding its recognition of an emancipatory 
> potential of sorts in the mimetic qualities of some esoteric artworks.
> 
> My question of the List is whether any one can point to other authors  who 
> took either Horkheimer's and Adorno's thesis on the dialectic of 
> enlightenment or Adorno's negative dialectics to heart as it were and 
> restricted their critical social theory to an incessant negative critique?
> 
> In other words I am seeking to substantiate Habermas's claim that the 
> tradition of critical theory was in need of renewal.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Matthew Piscioneri
> School of Philosophy
> University of Queensland
> 
> 
> 
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