Adorno’s claim that artworks rather than authors possess knowledge carried an unacknowledged philosophical optimism

Evidence

Adorno’s overcoming of psychologism in art through the theory that it was the work of art which had knowledge, and not the author, was being paid for with a piece of identity philosophy and optimism'. This leads immediately into the theological discussion which lies before us. Our work will to a great extent depend on our ability to find common formulations here.’ — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 331

Categorization

• XREF: Ties to Adorno’s aesthetics and to the identity-thinking critique later formalized in Negative Dialectics. — connects to: Adorno held that art’s decisive level is knowledge inaccessible to bourgeois science. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 242; Adorno envisioned objectifying the subjective as art’s and society’s shared task — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 637; Adorno located society’s crucial problems within autonomous art as a model of salvation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 875 (+1 more)
• QUESTION: What exactly makes Horkheimer’s mediation-by-negation demand the ‘correct’ formulation where Adorno’s is not yet it?
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Adorno held that art’s decisive level is knowledge inaccessible to bourgeois science. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 242; Adorno envisioned objectifying the subjective as art’s and society’s shared task — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 637; Adorno located society’s crucial problems within autonomous art as a model of salvation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 875 (+1 more)