Adorno by 1968 had given up hope that contemporary society fit any consistent theory
Evidence
In his most recent sociological study,
Notes on Social Conflict Today', written in collaboration with Ursula Jaerisch, one of his students, and published in 1968 in a festschrift for Wolfgang Abendroth's sixtieth birthday, Adorno had developed the hypothesis that class conflict had become latent, and was being displaced towards the margins of societyan idea that might have produced promising new directions for the New Left's theoretical analyses. In his opening lecture at the sociology conference,Late Capitalism or Industrial Society?’, however, Adorno did not take the idea up, despite its immense promise for an analysis of the current situation. Instead, he voiced the resignation of a conjecture that had been omitted from the introduction to Sociologica IIthat contemporary society might be beyond the reach of any consistent theory. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2646
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Adorno’s later despair over the student movement and his 1969 death; also relates to the broader Frankfurt School trajectory away from revolutionary hope toward resignation. — connects to: Adorno saw philosophy as unable to grasp totality yet kept it over social theory — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2532; Adorno chose substantive philosophy over a material theory of society — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2528; Adorno’s concept-object slippage reflects society’s real objective contradictions, not careless theorizing — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 689
Broader Connections
- Adorno saw philosophy as unable to grasp totality yet kept it over social theory
#corroborates(0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2532 - Adorno chose substantive philosophy over a material theory of society
#corroborates(0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2528 - Adorno’s concept-object slippage reflects society’s real objective contradictions, not careless theorizing
#qualifies(0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 689