Autonomy after Auschwitz: Adorno, German Idealism, and Modernity

220 Pages·2014·0.78 MB·English

by  Martin Shuster

autonomy after auschwitz

autonomy after auschwitz
Adorno, German Idealism,
and Modernity
martin shuster
the university of chicago press
chicago and london
martin shuster is chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at
Avila University in Kansas City, Missouri, and is cofounder of the Association for
Adorno Studies.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2014 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2014.
Printed in the United States of America
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 15548- 7 (cloth)
isbn- 13: 978- 0- 226- 15551- 7 (e- book)
doi: 10.7208/chicago/9780226155517.001.0001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shuster, Martin, author.
Autonomy after Auschwitz: Adorno, German idealism, and modernity /
Martin Shuster.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-226-15548-7 (cloth : alkaline paper) —
isbn 978-0-226-15551-7 (ebook) 1. Autonomy (Philosophy) 2. Adorno,
Theodor W., 1903–1969. 3. Philosophy, German. I. Title.
b808.67.s58 2014
141—dc23 2014005521
a This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1 992 (Permanence of
Paper).
For my parents

When man is for once overcome by the horror of alienation and the
world fills him with anxiety, he looks up and sees a picture. Then
he sees that the I is contained in the world, and that there really is
no I, and thus the world cannot harm the I, and he calms down; or
he sees that the world is contained in the I, and that there really is
no world, and thus the world cannot harm the I, and he calms down.
And when man is overcome again by the horror of alienation and the
I fills him with anxiety, he looks up and sees a picture; and which-
ever he sees, it does not matter, either the empty I is stuffed full
of world or it is submerged in the flood of the world, and he calms
down. But the moment will come, and it is near, when man, over-
come by horror, looks up and in a flash sees both pictures at once.
And he is seized by a deeper horror.
—Martin Buber, I and Thou
The relation of history to reason remains constitutive for the dis-
course of modernity— for better or worse.
—Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity
The earthquake of Lisbon sufficed to cure Voltaire of the theodicy of
Leibniz, and the visible disaster of the first nature was insignificant
in comparison with the second, social one, which defies human
imagination as it distills real hell from human evil.
—Theodor W. Adorno, Negative Dialectics

contents
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
1. I Against I: Stressing the Dialectic in the Dialectic
of Enlightenment 7
1. Introduction 7
2. The Text of the Dialectic of Enlightenment 9
3. Enlightenment as a Historical Category? 11
4. The Concept of Enlightenment, and Enlightenment
and Myth 13
5. Images and Signs 18
6. The Dissolution of Subjectivity 21
7. The Dialectic of Enlightenment and Kant’s Dialectic
of Reason 23
8. Adorno on Kant’s Dialectic 26
9. The Necessity of the Dialectic of Enlightenment 29
10. The Dialectic of Enlightenment and Practical Reason 33
11. Conclusion 39
2. Beyond the Bounds of Sense: Kant and the Highest Good 42
1. Introduction 42
2. Morality and the Highest Good 43
3. The Highest Good in the Critique of Pure Reason 45
4. The Garve Review 51
ix