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Subject vs. Subjectivity

Adorno and the Philosophy of Subject

Author(s): Predrag Krstić
Subject(s): Philosophy, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Logic, Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Contemporary Philosophy
Published by: Institut za filozofiju i društvenu teoriju
Keywords: Adorno; subject; not being a subject; traditional philosophy; transcendence; reason; subjectivity
Summary/Abstract: This book seeks to reconstruct Adorno’s understanding of the subject and probe the status, meaning and scope of this concept within his philosophy. In the first part, after the introduction, the concept is broken into its essential component meanings; furthermore, some adverse consequences are indicated that, in Adorno’s view, have been brought by the concept’s hypertrophy, in thought as well as in its practical applications. The next section of the book is a sort of necessary intermediate step: in it, the central role is played by the concept of identity which in Adorno’s nomenclature, along with the subject, marks the destiny of Western thought and action. The central and most extensive part of the text is devoted to thematizing the subject – and/or identity-character of traditional philosophy, and the ensuing „fatal strategies“. The next chapter examines the possibilities for overcoming or escaping this destiny of Western thought through the concepts of ‘non-identical’and ‘not being a subject’, i.e. through the emancipatory potential of traditional philosophy and metaphysics in light of their Adornian recomposition. The concluding parts of the book attempts to assess contemporary relevance – or lack thereof – of Adorno’s philosophy in the context of current controversies. A positioning of its significance enables, in the conclusion, to explicate those provocative moments of Adorno’s theory that, rather than growing obsolete, precisely determine in a substantial sense some recent disputes.

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