| Theodor W. Adorno: An Introduction Contributor(s): Rolleston, James (Translator) |
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ISBN: 0822344718 ISBN-13: 9780822344711 Publisher: Duke University Press OUR PRICE: $24.65 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 2009 Annotation: "This superb introduction to Adorno's complex and difficult work is full of extraordinary insights, which will benefit the old hands as well as the beginners."--Fredric Jameson, Duke University |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | History & Surveys - Modern - Social Science | Sociology - General |
| Dewey: 193 |
| LCCN: 2008055239 |
| Series: Post-Contemporary Interventions |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5.9" W x 8.4" (0.70 lbs) 200 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969) was one of the twentieth century's most important thinkers. In light of two pivotal developments-the rise of fascism, which culminated in the Holocaust, and the standardization of popular culture as a commodity indispensable to contemporary capitalism-Adorno sought to evaluate and synthesize the essential insights of Western philosophy by revisiting the ethical and sociological arguments of his predecessors: Kant, Nietzsche, Hegel, and Marx. This book, first published in Germany in 1996, provides a succinct introduction to Adorno's challenging and far-reaching thought. Gerhard Schweppenh user, a leading authority on the Frankfurt School of critical theory, explains Adorno's epistemology, social and political philosophy, aesthetics, and theory of culture. After providing a brief overview of Adorno's life, Schweppenh user turns to the theorist's core philosophical concepts, including post-Kantian critique, determinate negation, and the primacy of the object, as well as his view of the Enlightenment as a code for world domination, his diagnosis of modern mass culture as a program of social control, and his understanding of modernist aesthetics as a challenge to conceive an alternative politics. Along the way, Schweppenh user illuminates the works widely considered Adorno's most important achievements: Minima Moralia, Dialectic of Enlightenment (co-authored with Horkheimer), and Negative Dialectics. Adorno wrote much of the first two of these during his years in California (1938-49), where he lived near Arnold Schoenberg and Thomas Mann, whom he assisted with the musical aesthetics at the center of Mann's novel Doctor Faustus. |