Adorno held that post-idealist social theory degrades philosophy’s concepts into obscurantist tools.

Evidence

In the period of idealism, Adorno argued, philosophical thought had been able to master all the factual material then known. After the collapse of idealistic systems, their central concepts had been torn from their theoretical context and material relations and made into tools of obscurantism in the hands of a humanistic social theory. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1928

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Dense, compressed statement of Adorno’s diagnosis of how abstract humanistic concepts are stripped of material grounding after idealism collapses; resists a one-sentence summary.
• XREF: Foreshadows Adorno’s later ‘The Authoritarian Personality’ method critique and his famous analysis of jargon of authenticity in Heidegger. — connects to: Adorno attacked positivism for severing logic from the world and knowledge from subjects. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2272; 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 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Adorno attacked positivism for severing logic from the world and knowledge from subjects. #expands (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2272
• Adorno rejected prima philosophia while defending a strict concept of real theory #corroborates (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1200
• Adorno chose substantive philosophy over a material theory of society #corroborates (0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2528
• Adorno saw philosophy as unable to grasp totality yet kept it over social theory #qualifies (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2532
• Adorno saw formal logic as a social artifact mirroring commodity exchange. #expands (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 266
• Adorno rejected both positivism and abstract individualism while insisting on nonidentity. #expands (0.72) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 268
• Adorno’s essayistic free thought was a utopia that avoided empirical engagement #complicates (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2287