Adorno chose a safe Habilitation topic because he lacked confidence for original work

Evidence

But Adorno’s decision to tie himself down to Cornelius’s transcendental philosophy sprang not just from strategic considerations, but also from the fact that (as he had written to Kracauer, who had suggested that he should do a thesis with Max Scheler on the philosophy of music) he did not yet trust himself to `use a genuine work as a Habilitation thesis’. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 327

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Adorno himself doubted his early phantasmagoria analysis was resolved. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 387; Adorno chose a safe Habilitation topic out of self-distrust; Adorno’s 1927 Habilitation failed because his supervisor deemed it unoriginal (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Adorno himself doubted his early phantasmagoria analysis was resolved. #corroborates (0.75) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 387