Dialectic of Enlightenment began as a provisional fragment collection rather than a finished work

Evidence

In a letter from March 1943, Adorno informs his parents that he and Horkheimer do not intend to complete the ‘big theoretical works’ with which they are engaged, a prospect which was ‘out of the question for lack of time alone’. However, he does state that they at least want to bring these works ‘to a provisional close and mimeograph’. This took the form of a 1944 hectographic typescript titled Philosophical Fragments. No effort was made to deny the provisional nature of this collection, and the designation of its texts as fragments was doubtless meant seriously. Later in the 1947 edition, the description Philosophical Fragments became the subtitle and was replaced by the new title Dialectic of Enlightenment as it became clear that no further drafts would be forthcoming. … In a 1949 letter to Hans Paeschke, the publisher of the cultural journal Merkur, Adorno reports that he and Horkheimer are working on a ‘second volume of Dialectic’. Seven years after that, Adorno informs the music educator Erich Doflein that he hopes ‘to finally write with Horkheimer the second volume of our Dialectic’. Yet another letter by Adorno, written to Wilhelm Melchior Meyer slightly over a year later, reads as follows: ‘I can disclose to you that Horkheimer and I hope to finally get to a substantial work which will take the idea of Dialectic of Enlightenment further, and which will have at its centre the concept of praxis itself’. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 741

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s larger argument: the provisional, fragmentary status of Dialectic of Enlightenment bears on it not being a ‘pessimistic cul-de-sac’ but an unfinished program pointing toward a praxis-centered sequel. — connects to: The Dialectic of Enlightenment began as a five-chapter confidential plan in 1942 — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1310; Dialectic of Enlightenment originated as a mimeographed 1942-44 typescript stripped of anti-capitalist vocabulary. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1362; Contingent publishing disappointments shaped what the Dialectic of Enlightenment volume contained. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1361 (+2 more)
• QUESTION: The 1957 letter names ‘the concept of praxis itself’ as the would-be center of a sequel — worth checking whether later Adorno drafts on praxis (e.g. his lectures on moral philosophy) partially realize this plan.