Adorno’s criterion for living art is circular, resting on a residue of subjectivity.
Evidence
The answer he gave was provided by a central topos of his thought: all salvation was to come from an exacerbation of the rigidifying process, but at the same time all salvation depended on there still being a residue of subjectivity and spontaneity left (see p. 307). But how was this residue, this mite of subjectivity in the work of art, to be recognized? By the fact that it contained a non-mechanical, living elementthis was Adorno’s tautological response. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 540
Categorization
- XREF: Ties back to the book’s earlier treatment of Adorno’s concept of the non-identical and residual mimesis (see p. 307). — connects to: Adorno judged modern art by its refusal to fully separate from what it abolishes — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2720; Adorno’s aesthetic theory leaves a plural, unresolved set of standards for judging art. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 680; Adorno’s habit of ruling out rival readings foreclosed any empirical testing of his assumptions — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 267
- QUESTION: If the test for subjectivity is circular, does Adorno’s aesthetics have any falsifiable criterion at all?
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Adorno judged modern art by its refusal to fully separate from what it abolishes — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2720; Adorno’s aesthetic theory leaves a plural, unresolved set of standards for judging art. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 680; Adorno’s habit of ruling out rival readings foreclosed any empirical testing of his assumptions — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 267
Broader Connections
- Adorno’s aesthetic theory leaves a plural, unresolved set of standards for judging art.
#complicates(0.76) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 680