Individuality itself is an illusion produced by the law of value

Evidence

‘It has long been demonstrated that wage labour formed the masses of the modern epoch, indeed created the worker himself’. Taking this insight from Marx and Engels, Adorno applies it to the individual in general under existing conditions: this individual is ‘not merely the biological basis, but the reflection of the social process; his consciousness of himself as something in-itself is the illusion needed to raise his level of performance, whereas in fact the individuated function in the modern economy as mere agents of the law of value’. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 932

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Adorno’s radical claim that self-consciousness as a self-contained individual is a functional illusion, not a biological given.
• XREF: connects to: The self’s seeming uniqueness is a mass-produced commodity falsely posed as natural — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 117; Market-driven exaggeration of eccentricity makes the individual complicit in his own commodification.; Individuality is a product of market political economy, not its opposite — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 169 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• False identity means apparent individuality itself is the manufactured illusion #corroborates (0.95) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 24
• Individuality cannot escape the social system because its inner essence already embodies that system #expands (0.90)
• Standardized production forces a compensating pretence of individualism #corroborates (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 82
• The question is what produces individuality, not how society acts on individuals #expands (0.82) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 137