Adorno reconceived philosophy as the teaching of the correct life rather than epistemology

Evidence

Accordingly, the bulk of Minima Moralia consisted of oblique distillations of Adorno’s own experiences, reflections, as he put it in the book’s subtitle, of a “damaged life.” As in all of the Frankfurt School’s work, traditional philosophical pigeonholes such as epistemology or ethics were transcended. “Intelligence,” Adorno wrote elsewhere at about the same time, “is a moral category. The separation of feeling from understanding, which makes it possible for the moron to speak freely and blissfully, hypostatizes the historically created separation of men according to function.” 105 Philosophy therefore must return to its original intention: “the teaching of the correct life.” 106 Under present conditions, however, it must remain a “melancholy science,” rather than a “joyful” one, as Nietzsche had hoped, because of the slim chances for its success. Above all, it must disturb rather than comfort: “the splinter in your eye is the best magnifying glass.” 107 At the end of his effort, in the last aphorism of the book, Adorno showed how far he had come from a belief in the possible realization of the hope for final reconciliation. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 835

Categorization

• DEFINE: Positions Minima Moralia as a ‘melancholy science’ of ‘damaged life,’ offering a concise definitional framing of Adorno’s late project.
• XREF: Connects to Adorno’s ‘splinter in your eye’ aesthetic and the Critical Theory tradition’s rejection of disciplinary specialization — resonates with Marcuse and Negative Dialectics. — connects to: Adorno’s fragmented aphoristic style was itself a philosophical position against system — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 834; Adorno’s 1931 inaugural lecture made the commodity-form central to social knowledge. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 182; Adorno rejected any identity of theory and practice — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 341 (+7 more)