Adorno’s aesthetics unify the critiques of nature-domination and administered society

Evidence

The critique of man’s domination over nature, and the critique of the administered society, were linked together in Aesthetic Theory in more detail than in earlier works to form a critique of a society which, through its reified structures, was refusing nature the socially mediated achievement of serenity it was longing for. It was the linking of these two themes that gave Adorno’s philosophy of aestheticslike his philosophy of society, his philosophy of history and his epistemologyits pathos. It was from this linkage that Adorno’s claim was derived that he was engaged in, or supporting, enlightened enlightenment. The moral of Adorno’s philosophy of art, and of the continuation of the Dialectic of Enlightenment that he was carrying out in Aesthetic Theory, was: works of art were all protohistories of subjectivity that were striving in an enlightened way to accomplish enlightenment. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2736

Categorization

• XREF: Directly ties to the Dialectic of Enlightenment’s core thesis; relevant to the reader’s Critical Theory reference-building. — connects to: Adorno located society’s crucial problems within autonomous art as a model of salvation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 875; Adorno’s late aesthetics frames mind and nature as mutually redeemable rather than opposed. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2214; For Adorno, conceptual identification itself constitutes domination over nature. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1264 (+1 more)
• QUESTION: Worth clarifying what Adorno means by ‘enlightened enlightenment’ as distinct from ordinary enlightenment.

Broader Connections

• For Adorno, conceptual identification itself constitutes domination over nature. #expands (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1264
• Adorno’s negative dialectics located emancipation’s hints in modern art’s distortion #expands (0.80) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 380