Adorno rejected Marcuse’s guarantee of positive essence beneath negativity.

Evidence

In Marcuse’s view, the elements of the new society were inherent within existing society and were preparing to transform it into a free society. For Adorno, however, perceiving the worldfrom the point of view of redemptionas being displaced and alienated, a perception anticipating the `messianic light’, was on the one hand the simplest and most obvious thing of all, while on the other hand it was an utter impossibility. This was because, for Adorno, any such perception must be situated at some point beyond the scope of existence, while at the same time every possible insight was marked by the very distortion it sought to escape. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2153

Categorization

• XREF: Payoff of the earlier claim (ch49) that Adorno admitted the critique’s standpoint versus criticized standpoint was theoretically unclear. — connects to: Adorno rejected both positivism and abstract individualism while insisting on nonidentity. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 268; Adorno and Marcuse broke partly over secondhand misreadings of Marcuse’s positions — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2596; Adorno refuses to reduce existing reality to mere positivity — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1487 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Marcuse and Adorno diverged on whether history harbors a guaranteed positive essence #corroborates (0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2153
• Adorno rejected both positivism and abstract individualism while insisting on nonidentity. #expands (0.82) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 268
• Adorno and Marcuse broke partly over secondhand misreadings of Marcuse’s positions #qualifies (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2596
• Adorno refuses to reduce existing reality to mere positivity #corroborates (0.75) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1487