Individuality cannot escape the social system because its inner essence already embodies that system
Evidence
Cf. the sixth of Marx’s Theses on Feuerbach : “The human essence is no abstraction inherent in each single individual. In its reality it is the ensemble of social relations… .” — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2517 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
‘The more they [works of art] sought to free themselves from external purposes, the more they became subject to self-posited principles of organizing the creative process. Thus they reflected and internalized the domination of society. If this is kept in mind, it becomes impossible to criticize the culture industry without criticizing art at the same time.’ — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 296 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Within repressive society the individual’s emancipation not only benefits but damages him. Freedom from society robs him of the strength for freedom. For however real he may be in his relations to others, he is, considered absolutely, a mere abstraction. He has no content that is not socially constituted, no impulse transcending society that is not directed at assisting the social situation to transcend itself. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 169 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Individuality is simultaneously a residue escaping the system and a wound the system inflicts; Humans are constituted by their social relations rather than an intrinsic essence — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2517; Unchecked individualism destroys individuality rather than protecting it — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 169 (+14 more)
Broader Connections
- Humans are constituted by their social relations rather than an intrinsic essence
#corroborates(0.88) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 2517 - Art’s autonomy internalizes the very social domination it claims to escape
#expands(0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 296 - Emancipation from society weakens rather than empowers the individual
#corroborates(0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 169 - The question is what produces individuality, not how society acts on individuals
#expands(0.78) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 137 - Unchecked individualism destroys individuality rather than protecting it
#expands(0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 169 - Society is a concrete generality neither reducible to individuals nor abstract
#expands(0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 274 - Modern individuality arises from rupture with the world, not harmony with it
#contradicts(0.72) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 841 - Social relations crystallize into fixed external forms that cannot keep pace with inner life
#expands(0.72) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 778