Adorno framed Minima Moralia explicitly as a response to monopoly capitalism.

Evidence

In a letter from October 1947, Adorno writes to his parents regarding his work on ‘a very long manuscript written in the Nietzschean aphoristic form, relating to a relatively wide range of philosophical objects, but above all the question of what has fundamentally become of “life” under the conditions of monopoly capitalism’. After all, as Adorno states in Minima Moralia: Reflections on the Damaged Life – the title under which the ‘very long manuscript’ was eventually published – the ‘perspective of life’, formerly the genuine substance of all philosophy, ‘has passed into an ideology which conceals the fact that there is life no longer’. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 907

Categorization

• XREF: Directly counters the ‘pessimistic cul-de-sac’ reading — Adorno’s most personal work is grounded in political economy from its inception. — connects to: Adorno’s Minima Moralia measures economic rationality against suppressed subjective potential. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 929; Adorno rejected idealist reconciliation of class antagonism as evading objective social causes — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 236
• DEFINE: Clarifies that Minima Moralia’s subtitle ‘damaged life’ refers to life under monopoly capitalism, tying form to economic critique.

Broader Connections

• Adorno’s Minima Moralia measures economic rationality against suppressed subjective potential. #expands (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 929
• Adorno rejected idealist reconciliation of class antagonism as evading objective social causes #expands (0.75) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 236