The Kantian ego is a product of material economic conditions, not a transcendental given

Evidence

Even the ego, the synthetic unit of apperception, the instance which Kant calls the highest point, on which the possibility of the logical form of all knowledge necessarily depends, is in fact the product of, as well as the condition for, material existence. Individuals, who have to look after themselves, develop the ego as the instance of the reflective preliminary and general view; it is extended and contracted as the prospects of economic self-sufficiency and productive ownership extend and contract from generation to generation. Finally it passes from the dispossessed bourgeoisie to the totalitarian cartel-lords, whose science has become the inclusive concept of the methods of reproduction of the subjugated mass society. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 79

Categorization

• XREF: Core Adorno theme — inverts Kantian transcendental idealism; connects to Western Marxism’s materialist reading of philosophy and later Frankfurt School work. — connects to: The ego is a late product of projection, not a primordial given. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 149; Kant absolutized historical contradictions into nature, thereby affirming the status quo — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 215; Sohn-Rethel sought to derive Kantian categories from the exchange-relation — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 326 (+3 more)
• DEFINE: Defines how Adorno re-reads Kant’s synthetic unit of apperception materialistically.

Broader Connections

• The ego is a late product of projection, not a primordial given. #corroborates (0.85) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 149
• Sohn-Rethel sought to derive Kantian categories from the exchange-relation #corroborates (0.80) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 326
• Kant absolutized historical contradictions into nature, thereby affirming the status quo #expands (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 215