Adorno prioritized completing his aesthetics work over political participation

Evidence

In contrast to Habermas, Adorno had no particular interest in concrete ideas for university reform or a revival of political participation, and his hopes were pinned more on the preservation and exploitation of what scope remained for speculative philosophy and avant-garde art. He therefore vacillated between sympathy for the student protest movement and aversion to it. He was busy with work on his aesthetics book now that Negative Dialectics was finished, and what he hoped, as he had written to Horkheimer back in February, was that they could only get some peace' to bring their work to a close and finish our lives without fear or pressure’. A high-profile role in the protest movement was incompatible with this, and his whole style of behaviour and thinking would hardly have fitted him for it. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2625

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Adorno’s method-over-practice emphasis explains his students’ charge of political quietism — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 123

Broader Connections

• Adorno’s method-over-practice emphasis explains his students’ charge of political quietism #corroborates (0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 123