Adorno’s belief in self-determination left freedom something to be given, not seized

Evidence

Or was Adorno the loser, after all? It was precisely Adorno, who believed in people’s capacity for self-determination, who did not believe that they would simply grasp their freedom to do so, but thought instead that it would have to be given to them. However: he predicted dreadful consequences if it was not given to them. This remark remained a gloomy one, thoughit suggested chaos and collapse rather than revolution and liberation. It was, after all, a stalemate that concluded the discussion. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2490

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Adorno recontextualized Kant’s isolated-individual freedom through Nazi camp experience — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2560; Adorno extends Marx from coercive structures to the lived possibilities of individual self-determination. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 917; Adorno reconceived philosophy as the teaching of the correct life rather than epistemology — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 835 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Adorno recontextualized Kant’s isolated-individual freedom through Nazi camp experience #qualifies (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2560
• Adorno extends Marx from coercive structures to the lived possibilities of individual self-determination. #qualifies (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 917
• Adorno’s weak utopia dissolves fixed social roles rather than institutionalizing them #qualifies (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2559
• Adorno treated artistic modernism as anticipating a free society #corroborates (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2229
• Adorno reconceived philosophy as the teaching of the correct life rather than epistemology #complicates (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 835