Hegel’s dismissal of the individual stems from liberal assumptions

Evidence

The dismissive gesture which Hegel, in contradiction to his own insight, constantly accords the individual, derives paradoxically enough from his necessary entanglement in liberalistic thinking. The conception of a totality harmonious through all its antagonisms compels him to assign to individuation, however much he may designate it a driving moment in the process, an inferior status in the construction of the whole. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 11

Categorization

• XREF: The paradox that the totalizing system is complicit with liberalism — individuation celebrated in economics but degraded in logic — connects to Adorno’s critique of identity-thinking throughout his corpus. Resonates with the chapter on the dialectic of enlightenment. — connects to: Adorno faulted Hegel for treating the bourgeois individual as an irreducible reality — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 834; Kierkegaard and Marx rejected Hegel for opposite reasons, individual versus social. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 173

Broader Connections

• Adorno faulted Hegel for treating the bourgeois individual as an irreducible reality #complicates (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 834
• Kierkegaard and Marx rejected Hegel for opposite reasons, individual versus social. #expands (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 173