Adorno rejected both positivism and abstract individualism while insisting on nonidentity.

Evidence

Among the members of the Frankfurt School Adorno perhaps most consistently expressed abhorrence of ontology and identity theory. At the same time, he also rejected naive positivism as a nonreflective metaphysics of its own, contrasting it with a dialectics that neither denied nor fully accepted the phenomenal world as the ground of truth. Against those who stressed an abstract individualism, he pointed to the social component through which subjectivity was inevitably mediated. He just as strongly resisted the temptation to acquiesce in the dissolution of the contingent individual into a totality, whether of Volk or class. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 268

Categorization

• XREF: Adorno’s dual rejection of ontology and positivism echoes the two-front war described in Horkheimer’s ‘Traditional and Critical Theory’ and the debate over the empirical turn in the Institute’s early exile years. — connects to: Both positivism and pragmatism shared philosophical assumptions Horkheimer opposed. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 243; Adorno and Horkheimer rejected immediacy and Hegel’s identity of subject and object. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 258; Adorno refuses to reduce existing reality to mere positivity — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1487 (+7 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies what ‘negative dialectics’ means in practice for Adorno: neither mere negation of the phenomenal world nor full acceptance of it.

Broader Connections

• Adorno refuses to reduce existing reality to mere positivity #complicates (0.70) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1487
• Adorno adopted ego psychology and character typologies he had formally condemned, diluting nonidentity theory #complicates (0.70) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 680