Adorno held that economic primacy existed always but varied in strength

Evidence

Adorno argues more decisively for the primacy of economy over society, emphasising that ‘not only today does the economy have priority over society, but that this priority was present at all times – albeit in varying degrees of strength’. That being said, he once again claims that economy and society determine each other and cannot be viewed apart from each other: ‘One can only speak of society since something like rational economic activity has been present – since the reproduction of human life was no longer left to mere chance of whatever conditions may have existed’. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1177

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Adorno’s precise position on the primacy thesis: universal but graduated in degree, not categorical.
• XREF: connects to: Adorno’s core concepts originate from Benjamin but his political economy developed against him — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 294; Adorno openly admitted the aporia of strictly adhering to versus weakening economic categories — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 899; Adorno refused to treat economic primacy as a static anthropological constant — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1178 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Adorno refused to treat economic primacy as a static anthropological constant #corroborates (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1178