Adorno’s 1931 inaugural lecture made the commodity-form central to social knowledge.

Evidence

In May 1931, after finally having qualified to work as a professor, Adorno delivered his Antrittsvorlesung, or inaugural lecture, a tradition for newly-qualified professors in Germany. Programmatically titled ‘The Actuality of Philosophy’, Adorno attempts within it ‘a comparative critical consideration of contemporary philosophical schools of thought (such as idealism, neo-Kantianism, positivism, phenomenology and Lebensphilosophie)’ in order ‘to establish his own concept of philosophy as the science of interpretation’. Here to an even greater extent than in Kierkegaard, and with explicit reference to both Lukács and materialism, the commodity-form becomes the central element of social knowledge. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 182

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: the full text of ‘The Actuality of Philosophy’ to see how the commodity-form is elaborated as ‘science of interpretation’.
• XREF: connects to: Adorno saw formal logic as a social artifact mirroring commodity exchange. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 266; Adorno treats exchange as a principle shaping thought and feeling to the innermost being. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 930; Adorno reconceived philosophy as the teaching of the correct life rather than epistemology — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 835

Broader Connections

• Adorno saw formal logic as a social artifact mirroring commodity exchange. #expands (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 266
• Adorno treats exchange as a principle shaping thought and feeling to the innermost being. #expands (0.82) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 930
• Adorno reconceived philosophy as the teaching of the correct life rather than epistemology #responds-to (0.72) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 835