Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (803) (remove)
Language
- English (293)
- Portuguese (199)
- German (180)
- Spanish (62)
- Italian (24)
- French (11)
- Ukrainian (9)
- slo (7)
- Multiple languages (4)
- Catalan (3)
Has Fulltext
- yes (803)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (803)
Keywords
- Adorno (51)
- Critical Theory (27)
- Reconhecimento (26)
- Recognition (24)
- Axel Honneth (23)
- global justice (23)
- Theodor W. Adorno (20)
- critical theory (20)
- Teoria Crítica (19)
- Frankfurt School (18)
Institute
- Gesellschaftswissenschaften (803) (remove)
Current work on populism stresses its relationship to nationalism. However, populists increasingly make claims to represent ‘the people’ across beyond national borders. This advent of ‘transnational populism’ has implications for work on cosmopolitan democracy and global justice. In this paper, we advance and substantiate three claims. First, we stress populism’s performative and claimmaking nature. Second, we argue that transnational populism is both theoretically possible and empirically evident in the contemporary global political landscape. Finally, we link these points to debates on democracy beyond the state. We argue that, due to the a) performative nature of populism, b) complex interdependencies of peoples, and c) need for populists to gain and maintain support, individuals in one state will potentially have their preferences, interests, and wants altered by transnational populists’ representative claims. We unpack what is normatively problematic in terms of democratic legitimacy about this and discuss institutional and non-institutional remedies.
As academic literatures and political demands, global justice and populism look like competing ways of diagnosing and addressing neoliberal inequality. But both misunderstand neoliberalism and consequently risk reinforcing rather than undermining it. Neoliberalism does not just break down political and social hierarchies, but also relies on and sustains them. Unless populists recognize this, they will find that assertions of sovereignty do more to reinforce neoliberalism and reproduce its hierarchies than to resist them. Recognizing neoliberalism as not simply corrosive of solidarity but also producing its own affective ties suggests that global justice advocates need to develop a critique of individual attitudes that egalitarian liberals have often seen as private and been hesitant to judge. In short, if either populism or global justice hope to take advantage of neoliberalism’s failures to advance an egalitarian politics, they need to reckon more carefully with their own entanglement with neoliberalism’s hopes and hierarchies.
This article examines whether autonomy as an educational aim should be defended at the global scale. It begins by identifying the normative issues at stake in global autonomy education by distinguishing them from the problems of autonomy education in multicultural nation-states. The article then explains why a planet-wide expansion of the ideal of autonomy is conceivable on the condition that the concept of autonomy is widened in a way that renders its precise meaning flexibly adjustable to a variety of distinct social and cultural contexts. A context-transcendent, core meaning of autonomy remains in place, however, according to which a person is only autonomous if she relates to the values and goals that direct her life in a way so that she sees them as her own and is able to identify and critically assess her principal reasons for action. Finally, the article addresses two challenges to the global expansion of autonomy education: the objection that autonomy is presently not the most important educational aim and the objection that global autonomy education is a form of cultural imperialism. It finds both objections wanting.
Introduction
(2020)
As a result of globalization, the number of people living outside of their countries of origin is on the rise. Among them are children of primary and secondary school age of varying socio-economic backgrounds. This article addresses the education-related challenges that children in such circumstances face. I first identify two principles – an educational adequacy principle and a presumption of responsibility on the part of a host country for meeting children’s educational
needs – which are widely employed to guide national policy decisions on educational content and the distribution of educational resources. I then discuss a number of problems that students living abroad face which, I argue, policies devised on the basis of these principles either systematically overlook or, in some cases, exacerbate. Finally, I offer two alternative principles – a cosmopolitan revision of the first and a replacement for the second with a focus on collective responsibility – designed to promote education policies better suited to a globalized world which might help to alleviate the barriers to success commonly encountered by children learning abroad.
This paper examines and rejects two normative justifications for low-fee private schools (LFPS), whose expansion throughout the Global South in recent years has been significant. The first justification – what I shall call the ideal thesis – contends that LFPS are the best mechanism to expand access to quality education, particularly at the primary level, and that the premise of their success is that they reject educational equality and state intervention in educational affairs, traditionally associated with public schools, embracing instead educational adequacy and unregulated markets for education. Against this thesis, the paper argues that an ideal educational arrangement must not do away with educational equality and some degree of state interference. The other justification for LFPS – the secondbest thesis – contends that although LFPS do not represent the ideal state of affairs, they nonetheless bring us a step closer to the ideal of universal primary education; they are a ‘realistic’ approximation to that goal. Against the second-best thesis, the paper argues that this justification commits the approximation fallacy: by deviating from the ideal educational arrangement LFPS may obstruct rather than facilitate its achievement.
This contribution develops a defence of a universalist conception of Global Citizenship Education (GCE) against three prominent critiques, which are, among others, put forward by postcolonial scholars. The first critique argues that GCE is essentially a project of globally minded elites and therefore expressive both of global educational injustices and of the values and lifestyles of a particular class or milieu. The second critique assumes that GCE is based on genuinely ‘Western values’ (e.g., in the form of a conception of human rights or conceptions of rationality or the self), which are neither universally accepted nor universally valid and therefore unjustly forced on members of non-Western cultures and societies. GCE, according to this critique, is assumed to be another version of the educational justification of a hegemonic and unjust global Western regime. The third critique focuses on the epistemological preconditions of GCE. It assumes that GCE relies on a particular, culturally embedded ‘Western epistemology,’ which perpetuates historically grown global educational and epistemic injustices by dominating and subjugating alternative epistemological approaches. With respect to the first critique I argue that it is to a certain extent sociologically plausible, but wrong when it is applied to the educational and political legitimacy of GCE. The second critique overestimates the consensus within the ‘Western tradition’ and underestimates the transnational dissemination of universalist ideals and values as well as its own reliance on universalist validity claims. I argue that in order to provide a plausible criticism of historically grown global educational and political injustices, it is imperative for GCE to integrate central insights provided by the postcolonial critique, without giving up on universalist ideals and values. The third critique is, according to my argumentation, based on flawed epistemological assumptions, which do not withstand critical scrutiny. Instead of identifying epistemic and scientific claims as the expressions of a particular ‘culture’ or geographical location (the ‘West’), I defend the position that philosophical and scientific research should ideally be conceived as a democratic and universalist project, whose emancipatory potential can only be realized on the basis of a universalist epistemology.
This paper explores how University as social entity has great potential to confront epistemic injustices by expanding epistemic capabilities. To do this, we primarily follow the contributions of scholars such as Miranda Fricker and José Medina. The epistemic capabilities and epistemic injustice nexus will be explored via two empirical cases: the first one is an experience developed in Lagos (Nigeria) using participatory video; the second is a service learning pedagogical strategy for final year undergraduate students conducted at Universidad de Ibagué (in Colombia). The Lagos experience shows how participatory action-research methodologies could promote epistemic capabilities and functioning, making it possible for the participants to generate interpretive materials to speak of their own realities. However, this experience is too limited to address testimonial and hermeneutical injustice. The Colombian experience is a remarkable experience that is building epistemic capabilities among students and other local participants. However, there is a hermeneutical and structural injustice that tends to give more value to disciplinary and codified knowledge at the expense of experiential and tacit knowledge.
This paper addresses the phenomenon of climate-induced displacement. I argue that there is scope for an account of asylum as compensation owed to those displaced by the impacts of climate change which needs only to appeal to minimal normative commitments about the requirements of global justice. I demonstrate the possibility of such an approach through an examination of the work of David Miller. Miller is taken as an exemplar of a broadly ‘international libertarian’ approach to global justice, and his work is a useful vehicle for this project because he has an established view about both responsibility for climate change and about the state’s right to exclude would-be immigrants. In the course of the argument, I set out the relevant aspects of Miller’s views, reconstruct an account of responsibility for the harms faced by climate migrants which is consistent with Miller’s views, and demonstrate why such an account yields an obligation to provide asylum as a form of compensation to ‘climate migrants.’
This paper discusses two possible difficulties with Catherine Lu’s powerful analysis of the moral response to our shared history of colonial evil; both of these difficulties stem from the rightful place of shame in that moral response. The first difficulty focuses on efficacy: existing states may be better motivated by shame at the past than by a shared duty to bring about a just future. The second focuses on equity: it is, at the very least, possible that shame over past misdeeds ought to be brought into the conversation about present duties, in a manner more robust than Lu’s analysis allows.
In Justice and Reconciliation in World Politics Catherine Lu endorses the idea that those who contribute to the reproduction of structural injustice have responsibilities to address that injustice (Lu, 2017). However, in the book, Lu does not explore the grounds and justification for recognising such a responsibility. In order to address this deficit, this paper proposes that those likely to contribute to the reproduction of structural injustice, in the future, have precautionary duties, in the present, that require them to take action aimed at preventing their future contribution. It is proposed that these ‘collectivization duties’ (Collins, 2013) require them to act responsively with a view to forming a collective that can end the structural injustice in question. This account recommends a collective-action solution alongside recognising that each socially connected agent is obliged to act. However, it does not entail that amorphous groups bear responsibilities and is appropriate in its attribution of blame, thus avoiding both Nussbaum’s (2011) critique of perpetually forward-looking accounts and the ‘agency objection’ (Wringe, 2010).
This article analyzes and criticizes the temporal orientation of Catherine Lu’s theory of colonial redress in Justice and Reconciliation in World Politics. Lu argues that colonial historic injustice can, with few exceptions, justify special reparative measures only if these past injustices still contribute to structural injustice in contemporary social relations. Focusing on Indigenous peoples, I argue that the structural injustice approach can and should incorporate further backward looking elements. First, I examine how Lu’s account has backward-looking elements not present in other structural injustice accounts. Second, I suggest how the structural injustice approach could include additional backward-looking features. I presuppose here, with Lu, that all agents connected to an unjust social structure have a forwardlooking political responsibility to reform this structure, regardless of their relation (or lack thereof) to victims or perpetrators of historic injustice. However, I suggest that agents with connections to historic injustice can occupy a social position that makes them differently situated than other agents within that same structure, leading to differences in how these agents should discharge their forward-looking responsibility and differentiated liability for failure to do so. Third, I argue that Lu obscures the importance of rectifying material dispossession. Reparations, pace Lu, can be justified beyond a minimum threshold of disadvantage. Theorists of settler colonialism and Indigenous scholars show how the dispossession of Indigenous land can be seen as a structure that has not yet ended. I conclude by arguing that rectification can be a precondition for genuine reconciliation.
Structural alienation: Lu's structural approach to reconciliation from within a relational framework
(2019)
In Justice and Reconciliation in World Politics Catherine Lu argues that structural reconciliation, rather than interactional reconciliation, ought to be the primary normative goal for political reconciliation efforts. I suggest that we might have good reason to want to retain relational approaches – such as that of Linda Radzik – as the primary focus of reconciliatory efforts, but that Lu’s approach is invaluable for identifying the parties who ought to bear responsibility for those efforts in cases of structural injustice. First, I outline Lu’s analysis of reconciliation, where she argues for the normative priority of structural approaches within the global political sphere, and propose that it will be useful to identify whether or not a relational account could instead identify underlying structural injustices. Second, I examine one particular relational account of reconciliation (based on Radzik’s account of atonement) and argue that this type of account brings to light underlying structural injustices of the kind Lu is concerned with. Finally, I identify an issue for relational accounts in identifying relevant responsible parties for reconciliation before returning to Lu’s structural account to address this gap.
Traditionally, in deciding whether some strategy or action in war is proportionate and necessary and thus permissible both international law and just war theory focus exclusively on civilian deaths and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. I argue in this paper that any argument that can explain why we should care about collateral killing and damage to infrastructure can also explain why collateral displacement matters. I argue that displacement is a foreseeable near-proximate cause of lethal harm to civilians and is relevant for proportionality and necessity calculi. Accepting my argument has significant consequences for what we are permitted to do in war and for what obligations we have towards refugees that result from our actions in war.
Moral refugee markets
(2018)
States are increasingly paying other states to host refugees. For example, in 2010 the EU paid Libya €50 million to continue hosting the refugees within its borders, and five years later Australia offered Cambodia $31.16 million to accept asylum seekers living in Naru. These exchanges, which I call ‘refugees markets,’ have faced criticism by philosophers. Some philosophers claim the markets fail to ensure true protection, and are demeaning, expressing just how much refugees are unwanted. In response, some have defended refugee markets, claiming they can ensure refugees have protection and are not demeaned. I argue that many markets do demean refugees, and therefore have moral costs, but can still be all-things-considered preferable to alternative schemes if they protect refugees more than these alternative schemes.
This essay develops, within the terms of the recent New York Declaration, an account of the shared responsibility of states to refugees and of how the character of that responsibility effects the ways in which it can be fairly shared. However, it also moves beyond the question of the general obligations that states owe to refugees to consider ways in which refugee choices and refugee voice can be given appropriate standing with the global governance of refuge. It offers an argument for the normative significance of refugee’s reasons for choosing states of asylum and linked this to consideration of a refugee matching system and to refugee quota trading conceived as responsibility-trading, before turning to the issue of the inclusion of refugee voice in relation to the justification of the norms of refugee governance and in relation to the institutions and practices of refugee governance through which those norms are given practical expression.
The issue of statelessness poses problems for the statist (or nationalist) approach to the philosophy of immigration. Despite the fact that the statist approach claims to constrain the state’s right to exclude with human rights considerations, the arguments statists offer for the right of states to determine their own immigration policies would also justify citizenship rules that would render some children stateless. Insofar as rendering a child stateless is best characterized as a violation of human rights and insofar as some states have direct responsibility for causing such harm, the problem of non-refugee stateless children points to greater constraints than most statists accept on states’ right to determine their own rules for membership. While statists can ultimately account for the right not to be rendered stateless, recognizing these additional human rights constraints ultimately weakens the core of the statist position.
While global justice theorists heatedly discuss the responsibilities of the affluent and powerful, those states which can legitimately be seen as victims of global injustice have seldom, if ever, been considered as duty bearers to whom responsibilities can be attached. However, recognising agents whose options are constrained not only as victims, but also as duty bearers is necessary as a proof of respect for their agency and indispensable to mobilise the type of action required to alter global injustices. In this article, I explore what responsibilities state officials of dominated states have. I argue that they have the responsibility to resist domination in the name of the dominated states members. While under particular circumstances this responsibility gives rise to a duty to engage in acts of state civil disobedience, under other circumstances state officials of dominated states ought to resist domination in an internal, attitudinal way by recognising themselves as outcome responsible agents.
Fair Trade is under fire. Some critics argue, for instance, that there is no obligation to purchase Fair Trade certified products and that doing so may even be counter-productive. Others worry that well-justified conceptions of what makes trade fair can conflict. Yet others suggest that the common arguments for Fair Trade cannot justify purchasing Fair Trade certified goods, in particular. This paper starts by sketching one common argument for Fair Trade and defends it against this last line of criticism. In particular, it argues that we should purchase Fair Trade certified goods because doing so benefits the poor even though there are other ways to alleviate poverty. It then considers how other common arguments for Fair Trade fare in light of similar criticism and concludes that they may well succeed.
Political realists claim that international relations are in a state of anarchy, and therefore every state is allowed to disregard its moral duties towards other states and their inhabitants. Realists argue that complying with moral duties is simply too risky for a state’s national security. Political moralists convincingly show that realists exaggerate both the extent of international anarchy and the risks it poses to states who act morally. Yet moralists do not go far enough, since they do not question realism’s normative core: the claim that when national security is really at risk, states are allowed to disregard their moral duties. I contend that there is at least one moral duty that states should not disregard even if their inhabitants are at risk of death by military aggression: the duty to reduce extreme global poverty. The reason is that even granting that national security is about securing individuals’ right to life, global poverty relief is about that as well.
There are longstanding calls for international organizations (IOs) to be more inclusive of the voices and interests of people whose lives they affect. There is nevertheless widespread disagreement among practitioners and political theorists over who ought to be included in IO decision-making and by what means. This paper focuses on the inclusion of IOs’ ‘intended beneficiaries,’ both in principle and practice. It argues that IOs’ intended beneficiaries have particularly strong normative claims for inclusion because IOs can affect their vital interests and their political agency. It then examines how these claims to inclusion might be feasibly addressed. The paper proposes a model of inclusion via representation and communication, or ‘mediated inclusion.’ An examination of existing practices in global governance reveals significant opportunities for the mediated inclusion of IOs’ intended beneficiaries, as well as pervasive obstacles. The paper concludes that the inclusion of intended beneficiaries by IOs is both appropriate and feasible.
This article outlines a new approach to answering the foundational question in democratic theory of how the boundaries of democratic political units should be delineated. Whereas democratic theorists have mostly focused on identifying the appropriate population-group – or demos – for democratic decisionmaking, it is argued here that we should also take account of considerations relating to the appropriate scope of a democratic unit’s institutionalized governance capabilities – or public power. These matter because democratically legitimate governance is produced not only through the decision-making agency of a demos, but also through the institutionally distinct sources of political agency that shape the governance capabilities of public power. To develop this argument, the article traces a new theoretical account of the normative and institutional sources of collective agency, political legitimacy, and democratic boundaries, and illustrates it through a democratic reconstruction of the classical body politic metaphor. It further shows how this theoretical account lends strong prescriptive support to pluralist institutional boundaries within democratic global governance.
The democratic boundary problem raises the question of who has democratic participation rights in a given polity and why. One possible solution to this problem is the all-affected principle (AAP), according to which a polity ought to enfranchise all persons whose interests are affected by the polity’s decisions in a morally significant way. While AAP offers a plausible principle of democratic enfranchisement, its supporters have so far not paid sufficient attention to economic participation rights. I argue that if one commits oneself to AAP, one must also commit oneself to the view that political participation rights are not necessarily the only, and not necessarily the best, way to protect morally weighty interests. I also argue that economic participation rights raise important worries about democratic accountability, which is why their exercise must be constrained by a number of moral duties.
This essay presents contributions by Jürgen Habermas and Paulo Freire for the constitution of critical-reflexive subjects and the implications in the teaching-research-extension processes in the field of Organizational Studies. We show that intersubjectivity and dialogicity are conditions for the understanding between subjects and it is precisely through these conditions that the subjects are constituted, in a process that is dialogical, pedagogical and political. Freire and Habermas offer elements to deconstruct dominant instrumental logic and provide the basis for the reconstruction of unprecedented-viable possibilities of ways of organizing and managing. Therefore, this article highlights the importance of Organizational Studies to broaden the focus of teaching-research-extension possibilities and directs them to a communicative and dialogic engagement, beyond the borders of universities. This reconstruction indicates that researchers participate in different public arenas, debate and build public problems, processes of resistance, visibility, and dramatization of problematic issues. Observing the contributions of Freire and Habermas, Organizational Studies as a field cannot be limited to developing a critique, from a distant point of view: it is necessary to co-participate, co-act, co-operate and co-construct with its public.
Este artigo apresenta contribuições de Jürgen Habermas e Paulo Freire para a constituição de sujeitos crítico-reflexivos e suas implicações nos processos de ensino/pesquisa/extensão no campo dos Estudos Organizacionais. Mostramos que intersubjetividade e dialogicidade são condições para o entendimento entre sujeitos e é justamente por meio delas que ocorre sua constituição em um processo que é dialógico, pedagógico e político. Freire e Habermas oferecem elementos para desconstruir a lógica instrumental dominante e fornecem bases para a reconstrução de possibilidades inéditas/viáveis de formas de organizar e gerir. A partir disso, este artigo destaca a importância dos Estudos Organizacionais ampliarem o foco das possibilidades de ensino/pesquisa/extensão e direciona-os para um engajamento comunicativo e dialógico, ultrapassando as fronteiras das universidades. Essa reconstrução indica aos pesquisadores que participem de diferentes arenas públicas, do debate e da construção de problemas, em processos de resistência, da visibilidade e dramatização de questões problemáticas. Nos caminhos de Freire e Habermas, os Estudos Organizacionais não podem apenas desenvolver uma crítica à distância: é preciso coparticipar, co-agir, co-operar e coconstruir com os públicos em que se engajam.
En este artículo se examina la aceptabilidad de las acciones wrongful birth (WB) a partir de la teoría discursiva del derecho de Jürgen Habermas. Inicialmente, se describe el alcance que tienen hoy diversas pruebas genéticas para informar decisiones reproductivas. En un segundo momento, se delimitan reclamaciones judiciales presentadas en ordenamientos jurídicos que admiten la interrupción voluntaria del embarazo (IVE), debido a afectaciones en el embrión y el feto que no fueron conocidas por los padres por no seguirse la lex artis ad hoc en el diagnóstico preconceptivo, preimplantatorio y prenatal. En tercer lugar, se explican los puntos con base en los cuales Habermas, en debate con Thomas McCarthy, propone la evaluación de la legitimidad de normas y fallos judiciales en términos de discursos de fundamentación y aplicación. Finalmente, se plantean las consecuencias que surgen de estos argumentos para valorar la admisibilidad de este tipo de demandas.
This article seeks to build a bridge between the empirical scholarship rooted in the traditional theory of political representation and constructivist theory on representation by focusing on the authorization of claims. It seeks to answer how claims can be authorized beyond elections - selecting three democratic innovations and tracing claims through the claim-making process. Different participatory democratic innovations are selected - providing various claims and taking place in different institutional contexts, i.e., (elected) members of the Council of Foreigners Frankfurt; individual citizens in participatory budgeting procedures in Münster; and citizen’s associations elected politicians in the referendum campaign in Hamburg. We first analyze the claims raised by the different claim-makers to identify their claimed constituency eligible to authorize claims. In the second step, we focus on the authorization by the claimed constituency and the relevant decision-making authority. The article finds that claim-making in democratic innovations is fractured and incomplete. Nevertheless, this is not the reason to dismiss democratic innovations as possible loci of representation; on the contrary, seen through the prism of claim-making, all representation – electoral and nonelectoral – is partial. Focusing on the authorization of claims in democratic innovations provides novel inferences about the potential and limits of democratic innovations for broadening democratic representation.
Elderly people still play a minor role in research on information needs and usage patterns of Internet users. Online research and advocacy groups look optimistically at the (economic and social) potential of the active and technology–skilled elderly; other approaches dealing with the social appropriation of technology see obstacles and stress the dangers of an increasing digital divide between generations. Our objective is to refer to taken for granted normative assumptions of the digital divide discourse, highlighting different requirements for the appropriation of the Internet. Using the concept of technological generations we look at formal and informal learning of young and elderly people in the German context. We use survey material and field impressions we gained in various technology related studies. The results show that the "two worlds apart" assumption (young vs. elderly people) is too simplistic. Factors like gender, education and socio–economic status still play an important role for acceptance and diffusion of a technology. The diffusion rate among the elderly is increasing, but will continue to lag behind the figures of the young users. Cultural preparations and easy access modes are essential for the elderly, who could make use of latecomer advantages. Informal learning and peer group support will be crucial for the diffusion of the Internet among the elderly. In our conclusions we look at the specific social status of the elderly cohort, which makes a comparison with other social groups very difficult.
La Escuela de Frankfurt ha jugado un papel determinante en la recepción posterior del Empirismo Lógico. Sin embargo, la revisión histórica del Empirismo Lógico ha revelado que esta visión partía de ciertas simplificaciones que no hacían justicia a la diversidad y complejidad de posturas que el movimiento incluía. En El ataque más reciente a la Metafísica Horkheimer sostiene que el positivismo es necesariamente irreflexivo y ahistórico en su explicación de las ciencias, y que su carencia de una teoría social que las contextualice lo vuelve incapaz de criticar el rol de la ciencia y de la razón instrumental en su aceptación del orden establecido, comprometiéndolo con una visión conservadora de la política. Se problematizará la atribución hecha al Empirismo Lógico de sostener una concepción de “razón instrumental” generalizada, y se sostendrá que, desde la visión de Neurath, el carácter auto-reflexivo de la ciencia admite una consideración crítica de los fines y propósitos del conocimiento.
The notion that democracy is a system is ever present in democratic theory. However, what it means to think systemically about democracy (as opposed to what it means for a political system to be democratic) is under-elaborated. This article sets out a meta-level framework for thinking systemically about democracy, built upon seven conceptual building blocks, which we term (1) functions, (2) norms, (3) practices, (4) actors, (5) arenas, (6) levels, and (7) interactions. This enables us to systematically structure the debate on democratic systems, highlighting the commonalities and differences between systems approaches, their omissions, and the key questions that remain to be answered. It also enables us to push the debate forward both by demonstrating how a full consideration of all seven building blocks would address issues with existing approaches and by introducing new conceptual clarifications within those building blocks.
What does it mean to design democratic innovation from a deliberative systems perspective? The demand of the deliberative systems approach that we turn from the single forum towards the broader system has largely been embraced by those interested in designing institutions for citizen participation. Nevertheless, there has been no analysis of the practical implications for democratic innovation. Is it possible to design differentiated but interconnected participatory and deliberative settings? Does this better connect democratic innovations to mass politics? Does it promote greater legitimacy? This article analyses one such attempt to design a systems-oriented democratic innovation: the ambitious NHS Citizen initiative. Our analysis demonstrates, while NHS Citizen pioneered some cutting-edge participatory design, it ultimately failed to resolve (and in some cases exacerbated) well-known obstacles to institutionalisation as well as generating new challenges. To effectively realise democratic renewal and reform, systems-oriented democratic innovation must evolve strategies to meet these challenges.
Participatory policy making is a contested concept that can be understood in multiple ways. So how do those involved with participatory initiatives make sense of contrasting ideas of participation? What purposes and values do they associate with participatory governance? This paper reflects on a Q‐method study with a range of actors, from citizen activists to senior civil servants, involved with participatory initiatives in U.K. social policy. Using principal components analysis, supplemented with data from qualitative interviews, it identifies three shared participation preferences: participation as collective decision making, participation as knowledge transfer, and participation as agonism. These preferences demonstrate significant disagreements between the key informants, particularly concerning the objectives of participation, how much power should be afforded to the public, and what motivates people to participate. Their contrasting normative orientations are used to highlight how participatory governance theory and practice frequently fails to take seriously legitimate diversity in procedural preferences. Moreover, it is argued that, despite the diversity of preferences, there is a lack of imagination about how participation can function when social relations are conflictual.
Is free speech in danger on university campus? Some preliminary evidence from a most likely case
(2020)
Although universities play a key role in questions of free speech and political viewpoint diversity, they are often associated with the opposite of a free exchange of ideas: a proliferation of restrictive campus speech codes, violent protests against controversial speakers and even the firing of inconvenient professors. For some observers these trends on university campuses are a clear indicator of the dire future for freedom of speech. Others view these incidents as scandalized singular events and regard campus intolerance as a mere myth. We take an empirical look at some of the claims in the debate and present original survey evidence from a most likely case: the leftist social science studentship at Goethe University Frankfurt. Our results show that taking offense is a common experience and that a sizable number of students are in favor of restricting speech on campus. We also find evidence for conformity pressures on campus and that both the desire to restrict speech and the reluctance to speak openly differ significantly across political ideology. Left-leaning students are less likely to tolerate controversial viewpoints and right-leaning students are more likely to self-censor on politically sensitive issues such as gender, immigration, or sexual and ethnic minorities. Although preliminary, these findings may have implications for the social sciences and academia more broadly.
Das Unbehagen mit den Gender Studies. Ein Gespräch zum Verhältnis von Wissenschaft und Politik
(2020)
Der Beitrag ist ein Gespräch zweiter Sozialwissenschaftlerinnen im Feld der Gender Studies. Es kreist um den Vermittlungszusammenhang zwischen Wissenschaft und (politischer oder aktivistischer) Praxis am Beispiel der Geschlechterforschung. Wie politisch kann, darf Forschung (nicht) sein? Wie, wenn überhaupt, lassen sich Kritik, Normativität, Forschung, politische Praxis und Ethik einerseits trennen, andererseits produktiv aufeinander beziehen? Er plädiert für die Anerkennung der Eigenlogiken von Wissenschaft und Politik und für deren Vermittlung im Sinne reflexiver Übersetzungen sowie gegen einen positionalen Fundamentalismus, der soziale Position(-ierung) mit inhaltlichen Positionen gleichsetzt. Schließlich artikuliert der Beitrag eine reflexive Ethik des Zuhörens, die sich im Forschungsprozess als Anerkennung von systematisch bedingten blinden Flecken sowie in den Mühen um deren Überwindung realisieren sollte.
This reading of Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park suggests that the semantic framework of the novels is provided by the contrast between two meanings of the word consequence, the archaic meaning of social or emotional importance and the common and garden meaning of effect of a cause. It also suggests that the narrative structure of the novels is that of a game of consequences, a game that was played at the time of Jane Austen.
The aim of this paper is to examine how Adorno's aesthetic and musicological thinking was received in Czech and Slovak musicology in the decades between the 60s and the 80s. The focus is on the Czech and Slovak translation of some of Adorno’s musicological treatises and lectures – especially those concerning his views on the Second Vienna School and the musical poetics of its immediate successors – which were published in former Czechoslovakia. The study offers an interesting perspective on Adorno’s relatively unknown lecture Form der neuen Musik (1965) and its related, although not identical, Czech version Formové princípy súčasnej hudby [Formal Principles of Contemporary Music] (1966) as well as on his discussion with some Slovak composers and musicologists published as Dnes je možné iba radikálne kritické myslenie [Today, Only Radical Critical Thinking is Possible] (1967). The study also considers other scientific texts by Adorno in relation to the above-mentioned translations of his works. The analysis, reflection, and interpretation of Adorno’s works in former Czechoslovakia, as well as their contemporary reception, turn out to be sporadic in the examined period. The purpose of this research is to revive awareness of their significance and to give a new impulse to their reassessment within the current musicological and philosophical reflection.
Day-to-day art criticism and art theory are qualitatively distinct. Whereas the best art criticism entails a closeness to its objects which is attuned to particularity, art theory inherently makes generalized claims, whether these claims are extrapolated from the process of art criticism or not. However, this article argues that these dynamics are effectively reversed if we consider the disparity between the criticism of so-called political art and attempts over the last century to elaborate theory which accounts for the political in art qua art. Art theory has located the political force of art precisely in the way that its particularity opposes or resists the status quo. Art criticism, on the other hand, tends to treat artwork as a text to be interpreted whose particularity may as well dissolve when translated into discourse. Drawing from the work of Theodor W. Adorno, this article argues that political art theory calls for art criticism more attuned to experience if it is to elucidate art’s critical valence.
Adorno’s negative dialectics wants to free the thought from the dictates of the system, taking position against the illusion to grasp the essence of reality by logic. Against that false idea of totality, Adorno devises a philosophy of fragment, a logic of disgregation that presupposes a different concept of totality: a fragmented, scattered and conflicting wholeness. The anti systematic thinking of Adorno is configured, however, as a systematic rejection of any systematic formulation: philosophy can at most claiming a pretension to truth by the practice of interpretation. A dialectic configuration of fragments of totality is at stake here: so, the arrangement of such fragments can both produce an image of reality endowed with meaning and also unfold through heterogeneous combinations that are not definitive, but always renewable from time to time. In Adorno’s reflection are so expressed two different instances which are complementary at the same time: on the one hand it represents the critical and negative element against the system and its hybris, on the other hand it expresses the need of the thought to go beyond and overcome that fragmentation, showing how the need of unity of the system is a need of the thought in itself.
This article examines Adorno’s non-identity thinking and the moral role of mimesis. On the one hand, Adorno criticises Kant’s moral theory, revealing the heteronomy of morality and the untruth of subjective freedom, on the other he defends the utopistic urge of the “transcendental”, moving from finitude and imperfection. Adorno opposes to the bourgeois personality neither a naïve return to nature, nor a getting rid of the subject, but the individual as differentiated coexistence of self and otherness, spirit and nature.
La mala conciencia del éxito : apuntes sobre la Viena moderna y la estética de Theodor W. Adorno
(2007)
El presente artículo pretende examinar cómo algunas de las premisas establecidas en la Dialéctica de la ilustración, y desarrolladas por Theodor W. Adorno en su posterior teoría estética, hunden sus raíces en el panorama cultural del fin de siècle vienés. Se mostrará cómo la ruptura entre el arte de vanguardia y el gusto del público, convertido en consumidor, había sido ya expresada por el escritor satírico Karl Kraus, así como por el arquitecto Adolf Loos y los compositores de la Segunda Escuela de Viena. La paradoja que reside en la realización de un arte dirigido a un público que debe rechazarlo y la consecuente «mala conciencia» ante el éxito del artista moderno, quiere ser el núcleo argumental de este artículo.
By means of the analysis of two Theodor Adomo's texts temporal1y very distant from each other -one written in the beginning of his career, the other in his maturity -, this article shows that the essay was for him not merely a theme of reflection, but also and upmost a kind of matrix for his thought. Within this matrix, through resort to a tradition, begun, in the Modernity, with Montaigne and solidified with Leibniz and the English empiricists, Adorno seeks to build, in the last phase of his philosophy, his conception of an "Anti-system", in which the indispensable coherence of thought can be kept save from instrumentalization by the domination system.
Percepção como interpretação
(2009)
Este artigo enfoca a apropriação que Horkheimer e Adorno fazem da doutrina kantiana do esquematismo no sentido de apontar para o procedimento – característico da indústria cultural – de usurpar de seus consumidores a capacidade de “esquematizar” (referir intuições a conceitos) por si próprios. Considerando-se que os autores não dão outras indicações sobre como se dá esse processo em relação aos meios de massa, o texto procura explicar como a própria percepção em geral é atingida pela “usurpação do esquematismo” a partir de colocações do capítulo da Dialética do esclarecimento sobre o antisemitismo. Essas colocações são complementadas – e também comparadas – com as de Hans Lenk no seu livro O pensamento e o seu conteúdo.
Eleştirel Kuram, 20. yüzyılın başlarında, daha sonra Frankfurt Okulu olarak bilinecek olan “Frankfurt Toplumsal Araştırmalar Enstitüsü” adı altında, bir grup akademisyen tarafından oluşturulmuş bir düşünce akımıdır. Bu düşünsel yaklaşımda, farklı dönemlerde farklı görüşler benimsenmiş olmakla birlikte, özünde pozitivizm ve araçsal akıl başta olmak üzere, modern kapitalist toplumsal düzen eleştirilmektedir. Aydınlanmanın, modernizmin ve modern aklın, kapitalizmin hizmetine girdiğinden yakınılmakta, bireylerin yaşamlarının kontrol edildiği ve onların belirli kalıplar içerisinde davranmaya zorlandığı bir sistemin varlığına karşı çıkılmaktadır. Bu çalışmada, diğer kuramsal yaklaşımlardan ve ideolojilerden negatif ve eleştirel bir bakış açısına sahip olması nedeniyle farklılaşan Eleştirel Kuram’, Kamu Yönetimi disiplini ile ilişkilendirerek açıklanmaya çalışılacaktır. Kuramsal tartışmaların, analitik bir biçimde sistematize edilerek kurgulanmasıyla oluşturulacak metodoloji, çalışmanın inşa edilmesinde temel yöntem olarak kullanılacaktır.
The Adornian theories are still a relevant theoretical and educational model, even fifty years after his death. The article develops exactly this aspect in many directions and it lingers on one of the masterpieces of the master of Frankfurt, Minima moralia, making use of hermeneutic critical thinking.
O ensaio investiga os pressupostos filosóficos e críticos de dois modos de conceber a representação literária dos sonhos, contrapondo as obras de André Breton ao livro de protocolos oníricos de Adorno, com o objetivo de refletir sobre o sentido do surrealismo e as relações entre arte, sociedade e psicanálise.
Theodor Adorno deixou uma série de anotações sobre o romance O Inominável de Samuel Beckett, as quais deveriam ser aproveitadas para a elaboração de um ensaio que nunca chegou a ser escrito. O artigo busca discutir uma dessas anotações, segundo a qual o romance de Beckett poderia ser caracterizado como a consumação de uma tendência do romance contemporâneo em direção ao romance reflexivo. Com o intuito de desdobrar essa questão o artigo recorre a elementos da obra de Beckett e da reflexão de Adorno sobre a forma do romance.
In ethnographic research and analysis, reflexivity is vital to achieving constant coordination between field and concept work. However, it has been conceptualized predominantly as an ethnographer’s individual mental capacity. In this article, we draw on ten years of experience in conducting research together with partners from social psychiatry and mental health care across different research projects. We unfold three modes of achieving reflexivity co-laboratively: contrasting and discussing disciplinary concepts in interdisciplinary working groups and feedback workshops; joint data interpretation and writing; and participating in political agenda setting. Engaging these modes reveals reflexivity as a distributed process able to strengthen the ethnographer’s interpretative authority, and also able to constantly push the conceptual boundaries of the participating disciplines and professions.
We analyze the relations between ethnographic data and theory through an examination of materiality in research practices, arguing that data production is a form of material theorizing. This entails reviewing and (re-)applying practice-theoretical discussions on materiality to questions of ethnography, and moving from understanding theory primarily as ideas to observing theorizing in all steps of research practice. We introduce “pocketing” as a heuristic concept to analyze how and when ethnographic data materializes: the concept defines data’s materiality relationally, through the affective and temporal dimensions of practice. It is discussed using two examples: in a study on everyday architectural experience where ethnographic data materialized as bodies affected by architecture; and in a study on digital cooperation where research data’s materialization was distributed over time according to the use of a company database. By conceptualizing data’s materiality as practice-bound, “pocketing” facilitates understanding the links between data and theory in ethnographic data production.
The article analyses the 'post-secular turn' in critical theory by comparing Jürgen Habermas' late philosophy with the philosophy of his predecessor Theodor W. Adorno. It poses the question to what extent can Habermas be seen as a post-secular theorist when setting his work against that of Adorno? Following Birgitte Schepelern Johansen, the author develop a concept of post-secularism as a move beyond the strict division between religion and non-religion, and apply the concept to the work of the two critical theorists in question. Finally, Adorno’s work is identified as a 'religious secularism’ and Habermas’ work as a 'post-secular secularism’. Thus, the author points out the ambivalence, which the alleged 'post-secular turn’ breeds, and suggest a reconsideration of the religious motives discovered in Adorno’s work.
La experiencia del arte en todas sus variedades tiene siempre una dimensión cognitiva. También las experiencias estéticas negativas la tienen, muy especialmente en el arte contemporáneo. Éstas pueden estar determinadas por el contenido y o los medios de la obra o por los efectos de la misma. Lo que da lugar a una variada tipología de experiencias del arte con uno o más aspectos negativos. La teoría estética de T.W. Adorno nos proporciona diversas herramientas para repensar esta variedad de la cognición artística. En la medida que se trata de una estética negativa, categorías de la misma como las de carácter enigmático, autonomía, resistencia o comunicación de lo incomunicable, nos ofrecen vías para entender el lugar de las experiencias negativas en el arte contemporáneo y su función cognitiva.
La cultura, en tanto manifestación de la actividad del espíritu en oposición a la actividad material, se ha entendido, generalmente, como expresión del progreso humano, que nos aleja de la barbarie. Adorno somete este concepto a un riguroso análisis dialéctico y descubre que la barbarie misma puede estar encarnada en la cultura, y que esta, como bien sucede con la industria cultural, puede estar al servicio de la dominación antes que al de la emancipación. Sin embargo, no renuncia a su espíritu utópico. Este texto explora no solo la crítica de Adorno al concepto tradicional de cultura y su complicidad con la barbarie, sino también las indicaciones en el pensamiento del mismo autor para comprender las posibilidades emancipatorias de la cultura.
Yaratıcı endüstri kavramı, aşırı-teknik-kapitalist toplumların bir zorunluluğu olarak 1990’lı yıllarda gerek gündelik yaşama gerekse bilimsel yazına yerleşmeye başlamıştır. Habermas’ın çift değerlilik yaklaşımı doğrultusunda düşünüldüğünde, yaratıcı endüstrilerin, yaratıcılık ve kültürü kullanarak ürettikleri ürünlerin olumlu yanları kadar olumsuz yanlarının da olacağı açıktır. Bu çalışma yaratıcı endüstrilerin, toplumsal alanda anlaşma yönelimli iletişimsel eylemi koordine eden kültürel-normatif yapılar üzerindeki olası bozucu etkilerine dikkat çekmeye çalışmıştır. Çalışma, bu düşünceyi temellendirmek için, Husserl tarafından geliştirilen “yaşam dünyası” ve Habermas tarafından kuramsallaştırılan “yaşam dünyasının sömürgeleştirilmesi” kavramları doğrultusunda ilerlemiştir. Çalışmamızda kısmen Frankfurt Okulu’nun düşüncelerine başvurulmuştur. Çalışmamız özetle, yaratıcı endüstrilerin, yaşam dünyasının temel bileşenlerinden kültürel yeniden üretim, toplumsal bütünleşme ve toplumsallaşma süreçlerini nasıl etkileyeceğine, iletişimsel eylemi ne şekilde koordine edeceğine ve yaşam dünyasını potansiyel olarak nasıl sömürgeleştireceğine odaklanmıştır.
Frankfurt Okulu düşünürleri otoritaryenliğe ilişkin araştırmalarını 1930’lu ve 1940’lı yıllarda yapmışlardır. Theodor W. Adorno ile Leo Lowenthal ve Norbert Guterman’ın araştırmaları ve analizlerinde ortaya koydukları “otoritaryen kişilik”ler, ajitatörler ve demagogların söylemiyle günümüzde ABD’deki siyasi liderlerin resmi olmayan sözcülerinin yeni medyadaki söylemleri arasında paralellikler bulunmaktadır. Bu anlamda Frankfurt Okulu düşünürlerinin otoritaryenizm teorisinin günümüzün otoritaryen popülist söylemini eleştirel bir şekilde analiz etmemize yardımcı olacağı düşünülmektedir. Bunun için öncelikle otoritaryen popülizm kavramı tartışılacak, ardından elitleri, beyaz olmayan tüm insanları, göçmenleri, Müslümanları, Yahudileri ve komünistleri, beyaz Hıristiyan Amerika'nın mevcut önyargılarını kullanarak düşman olarak etiketleyen yeni medya kişiliği Nicholas J. Fuentes’in söylemi analiz edilecek; otoritaryenlik ve anti-Semitizm üzerine yapılan ilk dönem araştırmalar, çevrimiçi haberlerde ve sosyal medyada “sahte peygamberler”in yeni söylemiyle karşılaştırılacaktır
Schon früh im 19. Jahrhundert wurde der Treibhauseffekt entdeckt. Doch bis sich die Menschheit ihres Einflusses auf das globale Klima bewusst wurde, hat es noch viele Jahrzehnte gedauert. Ein Rückblick auf das zähe Ringen darum, aus wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen die richtigen politischen Schritte abzuleiten.
Personalized campaign styles are of increasing importance in contemporary election campaigns at all levels of politics. Surprisingly, we know little about their implications for the behavior of successful candidates once they take public office. This paper aims to fill this gap in empirical and theoretical ways. It shows that campaign personalization results in legislative personalization. Legislators that ran personalized campaigns are found to be more likely to deviate in roll call votes and to take independent positions on the floor. These findings result from a novel dataset that matches survey evidence on candidates’ campaign styles in the 2009 German Federal Elections with the legislative behavior of successful candidates in the 17th German Bundestag (2009–2013). Combining data from the campaign and legislative arenas allows us to explore the wider consequences of campaign personalization.
Goals and pathways to achieve sustainable urban development have multiple interlinkages with human health and wellbeing. However, these interlinkages have not been examined in depth in recent discussions on urban sustainability and global urban science. This paper fills that gap by elaborating in detail the multiple links between urban sustainability and human health and by mapping research gaps at the interface of health and urban sustainability sciences. As researchers from a broad range of disciplines, we aimed to: 1) define the process of urbanization, highlighting distinctions from related concepts to support improved conceptual rigour in health research; 2) review the evidence linking health with urbanization, urbanicity, and cities and identify cross-cutting issues; and 3) highlight new research approaches needed to study complex urban systems and their links with health. This novel, comprehensive knowledge synthesis addresses issue of interest across multiple disciplines. Our review of concepts of urban development should be of particular value to researchers and practitioners in the health sciences, while our review of the links between urban environments and health should be of particular interest to those outside of public health. We identify specific actions to promote health through sustainable urban development that leaves no one behind, including: integrated planning; evidence-informed policy-making; and monitoring the implementation of policies. We also highlight the critical role of effective governance and equity-driven planning in progress towards sustainable, healthy, and just urban development.
Свою роботу «Актуальність філософії» молодий філософ-неомарксист Теодор Адорно прочитав улітку 1931 року як лекцію, вступаючи на посаду приват-доцента Франкфуртського університету імені Йогана Вольфґанґа Ґете. У цій лекції Т. Адорно критично проаналізував філософію позитивізму, неокантіанство, філософію життя та феноменологічне вчення Едмунда Гуссерля, ідейно впливових течій і шкіл німецької філософії, що мали статус панівного теоретичного знання в суспільстві. Також Т. Адорно здійснив неомарксистську критику онтологічних проєктів таких німецьких філософів, як Макс Шелер та Мартін Гайдеґґер, які зазнали ідейного впливу Гуссерлевого вчення. На переконання Т. Адорно, ці онтологічні проекти через первинну присутність у них ірраціоналістичних елементів існування людини формують таку манеру суб’єктивного мислення, що не спроможне дієво поєднати його суб’єкта із зовнішньою дійсністю. Іншим об’єктом критики Т. Адорно була філософія Віденського гуртка, яка, на його переконання, хоча й переймалася розглядом людини як суб’єкта емпіричного пізнання, однак не зауважила дійсну суть його існування як історичної істоти. Неомарксист Т. Адорно запропонував убачати спільний сцієнтизм феноменології, філософії емпіріокритицизму та Віденського гуртка такою теоретичною тенденцією, котра неспроможна надавати аподиктичні відповіді на основні, сутнісні питання людського буття як історично плинного. Тим самим ця теорія доводить свою ідейну недосконалість, а також й історичну неактуальність. Виходячи зі своєї критики цієї філософії, Т. Адорно запропонував власне, неомарксистське бачення філософії, котра мусить замінити попередню філософію як панівну в суспільстві. Ця нова, матеріалістична теорія, що перебуває в буттєвому діалектичному зв’язку із соціальною практикою, має сприяти самостійному тлумаченню суб’єктом буттєвих сенсів та історичних картин, що формує за допомогою понять його розуміння соціальної дійсності як історичної, і водночас вона мусить ідейно скасовувати претензії будь-якої філософії на статус офіційної теорії. У цій лекції Т. Адорно також представив ідейний задум свого вчення про людське буття, суть якого у зміненому вигляді він пізніше експлікував у «Негативній діалектиці» (1966), своєму головному філософському творі.
The Methodological seminar was conducted by the scientific journal “Philosophy of Education” (Institute of Higher Education, National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine). The participants of the seminar were Prof. Panos Eliopoulos (University of Peloponnese, Greece), Lyudmyla Gorbunova, Mykhailo Boychenko, Olga Gomilko, Mariia Kultaieva, Volodymyr Kovtunets, Sergiy Kurbatov, Anna Laktionova, Tetiana Matusevych, Natalia Radionova, Iryna Stepanenko, Maya Trynyak and Viktor Zinchenko. On March 30, 2016, a methodological seminar was conducted at the Institute of Higher Education NAES of Ukraine. This seminar was devoted to the discussion of educational problems in the area of mass culture, and relative opportunities for the development of individuality. The report «Mass culture, education and the perspective of individuality» was made by Panos Eliopulos, professor of Peloponnese University, a member of journal’s «Філософія освіти. Philosophy of Education” editorial board. The scientists from the Institute of Higher Education, Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Skovoroda National Pedagogical University of Kharkiv participated in this event. Designated issues were observed primarily from the point of view of the Frankfurt School representatives, as well as representatives of modern critical philosophy of education and critical pedagogy. It was emphasized that T.Adorno’s ideas and ideas of other Frankfurt School members, which were developed in the middle of the last century, continue to be relevant in current socio-cultural contexts. The technical rationalism which became the rationalism of dominance in the context of technological civilization, could not provide the way toward the liberation of man and the development of his or her individuality. Market society with its instrumental rationality leads to homogenization and standardization of mass culture and as a result, we have a semi-education, leading to destruction of personality and social pathologies. The panelists agreed that semi-education reflects the crisis of ideals of education and training as far as a suspension of human emancipation process. Due to suspension of the creative process of a person formation, replacing it by the processes of stereotyping based on mimetic rationality, culture itself loses creative potential. The process of degradation of education and culture in the semi-education eventually leads to its destruction at theoretical level and the elaboration of the practice of anti-education. Only through returning of the individual and maintaining his or her social importance due to the tools of holistic education it is possible to overcome such stereotyping. For Frankfurt School members, and those who share their ideals, true education in its meta-theoretical sense becomes the important factor, contributing to the emancipation of society and individual. This idea is particularly important in the context of contemporary challenges and threats from instrumentalization of approaches to the process of transformation of the Ukrainian culture and education.
Eu busco neste artigo mostrar alguns aspectos relativos a diferentes pesquisas e reflexões que empreendi em anos recentes sobre o conceito de indústria cultural. A questão central é o pensamento de Theodor W. Adorno com especial atenção para a atualidade de sua dialética negativa. Minha intervenção acerca da atualidade do conceito de indústria cultural possui três passos argumentativos: o entrelaçamento entre racionalidade e dominação como a base de uma teoria da sociedade em Adorno; algumas mudanças no capitalismo contemporâneo e suas implicações para um conceito de indústria cultural no século XXI e; a posição da indústria cultural no contexto da Sociologia brasileira. O objetivo central do artigo, produzido na forma de ensaio, é enfatizar a atualidade da teoria crítica da sociedade de Theodor Adorno mediante argumentos específicos ao campo da Sociologia.
Este artigo aborda criticamente alguns conceitos referentes ao vínculo entre racionalidade, abstração e poder, tomados em contraste com a noção de mímesis, tal como Adorno e Horkheimer concebem na Dialética do esclarecimento. Partindo da diferenciação de quatro conceitos de esclarecimento, procuramos demonstrar o caráter inadequado da equalização entre esclarecimento e exercício violento e ideológico do poder, mostrando como o conceito de abstração, que nos parece servir de base para o primeiro capítulo daquela obra, permite delinear melhor a cisão entre as formas de conhecimento miméticas e as que lhe sucederam, tomando como ponto de partida a concepção mítica grega arcaica.
Este artigo visa discutir os modelos de síntese pressupostos pela dialética negativa de Adorno através de aproximações de temáticas maiores da filosofia de Karl Marx. Isto nos permitirá qualificar melhor a natureza materialista da dialética negativa adorniana, abordando inclusive o impacto político de certas elaborações conceituais.
Este artigo se propõe estabelecer um diálogo com o ensaio Teoria da Semiformação, de Theodor Adorno, escrito em 1959, no contexto do capitalismo do bem-estar social. O objetivo é ressaltar sua atualidade na abordagem da crise da formação cultural contemporânea, em que prevalece a forma de capitalismo neoliberal e, ao mesmo tempo, detectar novas nuances constitutivas da referida teoria nesse momento histórico. Nessa trajetória, o texto percorrerá os seguintes passos: a Teoria da Semiformação como um diagnóstico da crise da formação cultural no final da década de 1950; as formas de como a ontologia da semiformação se constitui em tempos de neoliberalismo; as novas roupagens com que essa crise cultural vai se instalando progressivamente nas salas de aulas; e a necessidade de se lhe contrapor novas manifestações de resistência. O artigo buscou apoio teórico em Dardot e Laval (2016) para captar as especificidades do neoliberalismo contemporâneo.
The main sources for the discussion of the category “relation” were Aristotle’s Categories and Metaphysics. Before their translation into Arabic in the 8th and 9th centuries, Christian theologians and in their footsteps Syriac scholars considered Aristotle’s works to be a useful tool in Christological discussions. This article analyzes the category of relation and its development in Arabic-Islamic philosophy in authors such as Kindī and his student Aḥmad Ibn aṭ-Ṭayyib as-Saraḫsī, Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā, Ghazālī, Ibn Rušd, the Sufi Ibn ʿArabī and others.
Mediante una serie de diferenciaciones analíticas reconstruyo y presento la estructura elementaldel proyecto de teoría crítica desarrollado por Axel Honneth, quien es consideradohoy el representante más destacado de la tercera generación de la Escuela de Fráncfort. Enel marco de dicha reconstrucción, especifico el lugar que ocupa el esfuerzo de Honnethpor reactualizar el concepto lukácsiano de reificación en clave de teoría del reconocimiento.Afirmo que dicho esfuerzo está guiado por la tarea que se ha propuesto Honnethde dotar a su proyecto intelectual de una veta de crítica de la racionalidad instrumental;una veta propia a la mencionada tradición pero para cuyo tratamiento Honneth hasta ahíno había desarrollado una conceptualización adecuada.
El objetivo principal de este trabajo es replantear la posibilidad de realizar una síntesis entre la fenomenología de Husserl y la teoría crítica de la Escuela de Frankfurt. Para ello realizaremos una revisión crítica de los textos del primer Marcuse (1928-1933), cuyo proyecto filosófico consistió en formular una síntesis entre la ontología fenomenológica de Heidegger y el materialismo dialéctico de Marx. La tesis que defenderemos aquí es que este proyecto sigue siendo vigente, pero tomaremos como referente la fenomenología de Husserl, desde la que interpretaremos los textos de Marcuse, y no la ontología existencial de Heidegger.
El siguiente artículo quiere contribuir a realizar una reconstrucción de la vida de Herbert Marcuse, centrada principalmente en su dificultosa relación con Martin Heidegger entre los años 1927 y 1947. Apoyándose en su correspondencia inédita, que se encuentra hoy en el Archivo Marcuse de la Universidad de Frankfurt, el escrito repasa los estadios más importantes de su formación intelectual: sus primeros estudios culminados en el trabajo sobre la novela del artista alemán, el intento de realizar una lectura marxiana de Ser y tiempo, las dificultades para habilitarse bajo la tutela de Heidegger, el acercamiento al instituto de investigación social de Frankfurt, su exilio tras el auge del nazismo y la ruptura definitiva con Heidegger finalizada la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
La risa es uno de los temas menos estudiados en la obra de Walter Benjamin; sin embargo, constituye una de las claves para la comprensión de lo que el crítico alemán consideró que podría ser una politización del arte. En este artículo tratamos de desgranar el lugar de la risa en la teoría estética y política de Benjamin a partir de su conferencia «El autor como productor». Desde ese punto nos proponemos introducir su lectura de Bertolt Brecht, así como su polémica con Theodor W. Adorno.
В статті проаналізовано основні ідеї представників Франкфуртської школи, а саме: Т. Адорно, М. Хоркхаймер, Г. Маркузе, Е. Фромм. Опираючись на основні дослідження та основоположні філософські праці представників Франкфуртської школи, зроблена спроба виокремити основні причини становлення неототалітаризму, та тоталітарних режимів у ХХ столітті. Встановлена взаємозалежність між Просвітницькою діяльністю та міфологізацією свідомості; визначена роль культури у цьому процесі. Окреслено роль ідеологічної системи, як однієї з форм соціальної міфології. Встановлена закономірність між «щасливою свідомістю» суспільства споживання і ефективним укоріненням міфів та ідеологічних систем у масову свідомість суспільства ХХ ст. Актуальність статті зумовлена тим, що необхідність критичного осмислення становлення культури тоталітарних країн сьогодні стає очевидною. Усвідомлення того, що суспільна свідомість пострадянських країн досі керується міфологемами, що були створені та впроваджені тоталітарною культурою, змушує нас серйозно вивчати проблематику міфологізації свідомості та ідеологічного впливу. Тому позбавлення від упереджень та перехід до нового витка демократичної свідомості неможливий, без вивчення основ становлення масового суспільства та функції культури в ньому. Більше того, без виявлення чинників, що зумовили конструювання західної цивілізації, неможливе не тільки рішення глобальних проблем сучасності, але й сам перехід на якісно інший виток соціально-культурного розвитку.
L’école de Frankfort abandonne progressivement les thèses de la philosophie de l’Histoire, dont l’acceptation fournissait une espèce de fondement pour la théorie critique, dans la mesure où l’on pouvait croire aux contenus émancipateurs de la raison inclus au sein même des idées de la société bourgeoise. Nous essayerons de montrer cequi est oublié dans les thèses de la philosophie de l’Histoire à partir de la dialectique du maître et de l’esclave de Hegel, et donc, pourquoi de telles thèses se sont montrées insuffisantes. Enfin, nous chercherons à démontrer que la figure théorique opposée aux thèses de la philosophie de l’Histoire se retrouve dans Über den Begriff der Geschichte de Benjamin. De plus, la récupération d’un tel fondement oublié dans les thèses de la philosophie de l’Histoire détermine, vraisemblablement, la considération morale de la théorie critique habermasienne.
O Objetivo deste artigo consiste em apresentar fundamentos da proposta epistemológica de Jürgen Habermas, identificados em obras precedentes à sua Teoria do agir comunicativo. A partir de Teoria analítica da ciência e dialética será explorada a proposta do autor, tendo percorrido antecipadamente pela querela entre Popper e Adorno; posteriormente busca-se analisar como Habermas, em debate com seus contemporâneos, retrata sua proposta em Técnica e ciência como ideologia, considerado um marco para a Escola de Frankfurt.
Nos Mandamentos, Deus proíbe aos homens tanto a feitura de imagens quanto a pronúncia em vão de Seu nome. Há, portanto, limites rígidos entre as esferas do sagrado e do humano. Este artigo examinará paralelos e divergências entre os pensamentos de dois autores que abordaram essa questão a partir de escolas de pensamento distintas: o filósofo neomarxista judeu Theodor Adorno e o teólogo luterano Eberhard Jüngel.
Mannov román Doktor Faustus. Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn erzählt von seinem Freunde (Doktor Faustus. Život nemeckého skladateľa Adriana Leverkühna rozprávaný jeho priateľom, 1947) je jeden z najznámejších literárnych diel 20. storočia. Základom jeho vzniku bolo stretnutie T. Manna s filozofom a muzikológom T. W. Adornom v americkom exile počas 2. svetovej vojny. Mannov román je poetizáciou a narativizáciou, či literarizáciou a fikcionalizáciou Adornovej hudobnej teórie a estetiky ako ich nachádzame v rôznych Adornových prácach, najmä v knihe Philosophie der neuen Musik (1949).
Mannov román Doktor Faustus. Das Leben des deutschen Tonsetzers Adrian Leverkühn erzählt von seinem Freunde (Doktor Faustus. Život nemeckého skladateľa Adriana Leverkühna rozprávaný jeho priateľom, 1947) vznikol v úzkej spolupráci spisovateľa Th. Manna a Th. W. Adorna. Adorno bol Mannovi nielen odborným konzultantom v otázkach dejín hudby, hudobnej estetiky a hudobnej teórie, ale bol do istej miery aj spoluautorom románu: hudobné analýzy a charakteristiky skladieb ktoré sa viažu na fiktívne románové postavy hudobníkov Kretzschmara a Leverkühna, ako aj na Mefista, pochádzajú od Adorna. Špecifickým problémom románu v tomto zmysle je „fiktívna hudba“. Adorno vytvoril fiktívne hudobné skladby fiktívneho skladateľa Leverkühna, podľa Mannových predstáv. Východiskom tejto literárnej fikcie boli skladby A. Schönberga, I. Stravinského a G. Mahlera. Mannove/Adornove fiktívne skladby sú predmetom pozornosti v analýzach Mannovho románu, a sú témou aj tejto štúdie.
Štúdia Fiktívne hudobné kompozície Th. W. Adorna v románe Thomasa Manna „Doktor Faustus“vychádza z autorovej staršej štúdie Theodor W. Adorno a román Th. Manna ´Doktor Faustus´. In: Slovenské pohľady, č. 7-8, 2013, roč. 129, s. 136-147.
Pokračujúc v zámere predchádzajúceho príspevku tento text otvára znova problém recepcie Kantovho vymedzenia kategórie vznešeného. Variácie, ktoré vykonávajú Schopenhauer, Nietzsche a Adorno predstavujú inovatívne prístupy. Premostenie dejín tejto estetickej kategórie do 20.storočia v myslení sledovaných autorov predstavuje funkčnosť vznešeného v premenách umeleckého a estetického diskurzu a nabáda k jeho aktualizovaniu v súčasnosti.
In the1960s, texts by the prominent German philosopher and musicologist Theodor W. Adorno were translated into the Czech and Slovak language. This was only possible due to the more relaxed social and political atmosphere of those years. The translated essays were published in professionally-oriented periodicals. This paper is aimed to map and evaluate the reception of Adorno’s translatedworks in Czechoslovakia. Although these texts embraced above all Adorno’s work in the sociology of philosophy, aesthetics of literature and musicology, this paper is mainly focused on Adorno’s musicological texts. Albeit mostly regarded as an original and extremely versatile author in Czechoslovakia, Adorno was also criticised on the background of Marxist-Leninist philosophy. In order to evaluate the reception of Adorno’s ideas in the Czech and Slovak environment, it is methodologically necessary to adopt a broader aesthetic-philosophical perspective that enables us to account for Adorno’s endorsement of the Marxist philosophy pursued at Frankfurt School of Philosophy.
Il saggio approfondisce l’opera di due artisti fondamentali degli ultimi decenni, ovvero Antoni Tàpies e Bill Viola. La loro produzione artistica riesce a sfuggire alla condanna che Th. W. Adorno fa di tutti quei movimenti che rimettono in questione il concetto di arte e la nozione di opera. Questi due artisti salvano lo statuto dell’arte nella società post-industriale, vale a dire in un momento in cui le trasformazioni profonde del sistema culturale rischiano di minacciare la sopravvivenza della creazione artistica, come se la razionalità estetica non potesse che abdicare davanti alla razionalità strumentale. Sono pochi i pittori che come Antoni Tàpies riescono a infondere alla materia inanimata un’irradiazione e una capacità di evocazione tanto intense, mentre per Bill Viola tutte le opere d’arte rappresentano cose invisibili e la stessa tecnologia digitale non è altro che una forma più pura per avvicinarsi a quelle realtà non fisiche e non visibili che stanno sotto alle cose visibili del mondo. La scommessa di Tàpies e Viola riguarda la sopravvivenza dell’arte nell’universo mercantile di una società sempre più amministrata e sottoposta agli imperativi economici; la loro produzione pare mirata a renderci consapevoli della nostra mortalità, offrendo immagini in grado di mettere in connessione la dimensione sensibile e quella spirituale, il visibile e l’invisibile, aprendo lo spazio a una trascendenza che sembrava completamente svanita.
The paper proposes a new understanding of the notion of “aura” as it emerges, including similarities and differences, in the aesthetic thought of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno. In particular, the paper shows how, not only in Adorno but already in Benjamin, such a concept designates also the capacity of artwork to refers, by its own internal, to an irreducible otherness. In this perspective, in a world increasingly dominated by a tendency to homologation and mercification – with the resulting identification of art and cultural industry –, contemporary art looks like a continuous oscillation between the will to deny aura and, other times, the awareness of its necessary survival, closely related (in particular, according to Adorno) to the recognition of the need to “save” not only the appearance but also, by that very fact, the aesthetic autonomy.
In Paris, metropolis of xix century, Benjamin traces the new paradigm of modernity: the modern theatrical dimension corresponds to the artistic innovations and to the reproduction of aesthetical requests. Entfremdung and Neutralisierung are the main characters of the Ästhetisierung and they are one with the distraction as principle of reception and the conformism as principle of valuation. This is the context of the aura’s decline. The Adorno’s critical essay on the radio (1963) analyses the transformation of works of art in cultural gifts and, in particular, the loss of autonomy of the musical work of art in the radio listening. The Adorno’s remarks recognize the historical character of aura and a new possibility that it can re-emerge in a new historical dimension of the music.
Sublimity, negativity, and architecture. An essay on negative architecture through Kant to Adorno
(2015)
Architecture defines and consumes people. It exposes them to a multitude of varieties of different aesthetic engagements. Architecture becomes a lived experience. However, this lived experience is always caught in the inner workings of the social and more specifically within cultural ideology. In modern capitalism, culture pervades every aspect of our lives. It shows its presence everywhere from our own homes to the public streets. Culture is everywhere, and architecture is a tool used for both the benefit and detriment of the “culture industry”. Kant speaks of the sublime as a profound moment of reason realizing its ability to overcome its own limits. In this experience is it possible to be completely ravaged and descend into hades and melancholy? Is there a beauty in this descent? More specifically, can architecture become banal or pedestrian, uplifting or depressing? According to Theodor Adorno, our subjectivity is defined by the constant dialectical struggle between freedom and unfreedom (among other things). It is realizing our freedom in the face of our unfreedom that makes us truly able to attain some form of resistance. The sublime experience can be transformed into a spirit of revelation and beautifully allow us to in a way resist the one-dimensional tendencies of modern capitalism. Architecture, which is immersed in our societal being and contributes to many of our own subjective unfreedoms, comes to define our lives as inhabited space. When does architecture produce a sublime experience? Can architecture’s authentic “aura” stand out amongst the reproduced city and produce a sublime feeling that can be a form of resistance against the culture industry? Does Grand Central Terminal provide the key to an architecturally sublime experience? Using dialectical experience and examining the sublime feeling (in a critique of the Kantian sublime) as the key to breaking through the culture industry’s banal architectural hold on our subjectivity, this essay will examine the experience of the sublime as a key to unfolding resistance in the face of the banality of modern architecture in the city and opening our minds to the Great Refusal through the exploration of Grand Central Terminal.
Il saggio si propone di approfondire due tendenze tipiche della musica contemporanea: la prima è il Minimalismo, movimento rappresentato da musicisti come La Monte Young, Philip Glass and Steve Reich, la seconda è la rave music (come la techno), caratteristica della popular culture nell’era postmoderna. Attraverso il pensiero di Adorno, e a partire dalla sua analisi dialettica del dualismo Schönberg-Stravinskij, il saggio propone una comprensione filosofica di concetti come “ripetizione” e “trascendenza”; l’assenza dello “sviluppo” in gran parte della produzione musicale degli ultimi decenni, nella popular music quanto nella musica colta, dimostra una dispersione del soggetto e dell’individuo, smarrito all’interno di un “eterno ritorno” della struttura ritmica che può essere ricompreso nei termini di un “eterno ritorno dell’identico” e non nei termini di un “eterno ritorno della possibilità”; in quest’ottica, a venire sacrificata è anche la dimensione della trascendenza, che non a caso viene ricercata spesso nell’esotismo dei culti orientali o nel consumo di sostanze stupefacenti. L’insistenza nel Minimalismo della ripetizione come unica ed estrema categoria di riferimento e norma estetica, produrrà infatti nel corso degli ultimi anni una dicotomia apparentemente contraddittoria, ma che invece esprime la medesima matrice logica: da un lato l’invasamento edonistico del beat elettronico della musica dance elettronica, dall’altro la proposta commerciale della produzione industriale della musica pop. Non è un caso che proprio il Minimalismo sia sfociato in entrambe queste due tendenze, mostrandosi come la cifra comune originaria, traducendosi nella musica rave o nella musica rock.
Este trabajo es el resultado de la investigación Capital Humano como factor de crecimiento Económico, en el cual se desarrolla una reflexión crítica sobre la teoría del Capital Humano, el abordaje se hace desde la teoría económica y el análisis tiene como referente los planteamientos de la Escuela de Frankfurt, especialmente en lo que tiene que ver con el uso desde la perspectiva de la racionalidad. Desde el punto de vista metodológico se trata de una investigación cualitativa, basada en un proceso de carácter interpretativo y comprensivo de tipo Histórico Hermenéutico, el método utilizado responde a una finalidad de descripción, interpretación, argumentación, que permitan avanzar hacia la comprensión de las temáticas estudiadas en un proceso dialéctico. Como resultado del proceso investigativo se hace un análisis de la instrumentalización de la educación, la formación, la capacidad de trabajo y el estado de salud del hombre, y aún de su propio ser, las cuales se consideran de la misma naturaleza que una maquina y quedan cosificadas al ser convertidas en mercancías comerciales que se venden en el mercado, lo que determina la posibilidad de colocarle un precio pagado en el mercado a la productividad de un tipo de trabajo determinado, a la acción del propio hombre y el desarrollo de sus capacidades superiores que deberían permitirle contribuir al logro de una sociedad mejor y una vida más digna.
O objetivo deste ensaio é argumentar em favor da frankfurtianidade de Jürgen Habermas, isto é, estudar os pontos de convergência de sua obra em relação ao projeto teórico do Instituto de Pesquisa Social de Frankfurt e, a partir dessa ênfase, apontar novas possibilidades de pesquisa no campo de Estudos Organizacionais (EO). Para isso, refletimos sobre aspectos teóricos essenciais do ensaio “Teoria tradicional e teoria crítica” (HORKHEIMER, 1975) e elaboramos uma crítica aos intérpretes que utilizam a cronologia geracional como principal critério para a compreensão de diferenças no movimento intelectual da Escola de Frankfurt. Metodologicamente, inspiramo-nos na proposta de crítica à interpretação por meio da hermenêutica filosófica (RICOEUR, 1990) e na natureza propositiva de interpretação de um ensaio teórico (MENEGHETTI, 2011). Para sustentar a proposição expressa de forma provocativa no título deste artigo, dialogamos com comentadores (BOTTOMORE, 2001; FREITAG, 2004; NOBRE, 2004; MELO, 2013), a fim de propor uma caracterização não geracional de seus membros e a proximidade de Habermas em relação ao marco fundador da Teoria Crítica. Nesse sentido, acreditamos que (a) a releitura da intenção emancipadora (HABERMAS, 2002), (b) a desconstrução da isenção do conhecimento científico (HABERMAS, 1987) e (c) a incorporação da filosofia da linguagem à crítica social frankfurtiana (HABERMAS, 2012) são contribuições importantes de sua obra à Teoria Crítica de Frankfurt. Como proposição para a área de EO, em nossas considerações finais argumentamos que a recolocação do autor no posto de genuíno teórico crítico da Escola de Frankfurt pode constituir uma nova agenda de pesquisa para o campo. Acreditamos que nosso esforço pode auxiliar pesquisadores da área de EO a compreender a obra de Habermas a partir de uma via que os afasta da armadilha de considerá-lo um teórico não crítico e/ou utópico. Sob esse enfoque, torna-se evidente sua produção intelectual politicamente engajada nos problemas sociais contemporâneos – dimensão que vem sendo negligenciada pelos pesquisadores do campo de EO no Brasil.
This essay reflects on the convergence between Jürgen Habermas’ work and the theoretical framework put forward by the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt, arguing in favor of the characteristics of the Frankfurt school in Habermas and pointing out research possibilities in the field of Organizational Studies (OS). We discuss the essential theoretical aspects of the work by Horkheimer (1975) “Traditional and Critical Theory,” and produce a critique on the use of generational chronology as the main criterion for understanding the intellectual movement of the Frankfurt School. The methodology is based on the critique of the interpretation using the philosophical hermeneutics (RICOEUR, 1990) and observes the propositional nature of an interpretation offered in theoretical essays (MENEGUETTI, 2011). To support the provocative proposition of this work, we establish a dialogue with authors such as Bottomore (2001), Freitag (2004), Nobre (2004), and Melo (2013)) discussing a non-generational characterization of the Frankfurt School’s members and the proximity of Habermas in relation to the pioneer works on the Critical Theory. We believe that (i) the re-reading of the emancipatory purpose (HABERMAS, 2002); (ii) the deconstruction of the impartiality of the scientific knowledge (HABERMAS, 1987); (iii) and the incorporation of the philosophy of language into the Frankfurtian social criticism (HABERMAS, 2012) are important contributions of Habermas to the Frankfurt’s critical theory. As for a proposal for the field of organizational studies, this esseay concludes that recognizing Habermas as a Critical Theory scholar of the Frankfurt School may constitute a new research agenda for the field. The contribution of this essay lies in helping researchers in the field of Organizational Studies to understand Habermas’ work differently and not as a non-critical or utopian production. In this perspective, it is clear that Habermas’ intellectual production is politically engaged in contemporary social problems, which is a dimension neglected by the researchers of the field of Organizational Studies in Brazil.
Nosso objetivo neste trabalho é tentar esclarecer o mal-estar causado por algumas leituras que muitas vezes despacham a influência e a presença constante de Hegel na obra de Adorno de forma muito breve e fácil, seja a partir da perspectiva antissistêmica da filosofia adorniana, ou então, desde a perspectiva negativa que a dialética assume em seu pensamento. Nesse sentido, pretendemos expor alguns pontos fundamentais da filosofia hegeliana, em relação aos quais Adorno se coloca claramente como herdeiro. Pretendemos mostrar que o filósofo de Frankfurt pensa não somente sobre estes pontos, mas também a partir deles, i.e., superando-os.
Ao tratar de diferentes aspectos do conceito de mimese na estética de Theodor Adorno, o artigo busca evidenciar a permanência do que Adorno designou como mimese primitiva ou originária na sociedade contemporânea. A análise do conceito de idiossincrasia servirá para mostrar esta permanência e, ao mesmo tempo, o seu reforço pela indústria cultural. Como contraponto a essa faceta do conceito de mimese, trataremos da mimese nos âmbitos científico, filosófico e no que Adorno considera obra de arte autêntica.
Adorno pensou a filosofia moral em diversos momentos de sua carreira filosófica, notadamente em Minima Moralia (1951), Dialética Negativa (1966) e em seu curso publicado postumamente Probleme der Moralphilosophie (1996). Uma avaliação conjunta desses textos permite indicar a centralidade do que Adorno chamou de “dialética da moral” – entre impulso somático e racionalidade – na constituição da experiência do prático. Além disso, as reflexões sobre a moral são um momento privilegiado das análises metafilosóficas de Adorno, que identificam em boa parte da tradição filosófica ocidental sobre a moral a presença da dominação da natureza interna – processo que caberia à dialética materialista da moral criticar e ajudar a transformar.
A concepção de filosofia formulada por Adorno foi impulsionada principalmente pela sua reação crítica a sistemas com pretensões totalitárias: nazismo, stalinismo e a sociedade produtora de mercadorias. A filosofia representa um refúgio para a liberdade diante dessas estruturas: ela dá voz ao não-idêntico. A capacidade de subverter os ordenamentos conceituais e sociais é implícita ao próprio pensamento, que se articula na forma de constelações em devir. A aproximação da dialética com o materialismo, concebido enquanto primazia do objeto, fortalece a filosofia na sua potencialidade crítica, na sua proximidade com a realidade e com a liberdade. Resulta daí uma filosofia renovada, simultaneamente aberta e comprometida com a verdade. A proposta deste artigo é apresentar a interdependência desses conceitos e apontar para a relevância da concepção de filosofia que deles emerge.
O artigo analisa a crítica social de Adorno, apontando os laços entre formação, sujeito e condições sociais e os efeitos para a educação (Bildung). A despeito da tradição neo-humanista e idealista e das certezas emancipatórias, a formação mostra sua face ilusória. É justamente em relação às questões educativas que o pensamento crítico de Adorno mais revela sua atualidade e potência para mostrar os paradoxos da própria educação. De tal crítica - apesar do paradoxo - decorrem determinadas exigências expressas numa dimensão ético-política e numa dimensão estética para a experiência formativa, cuja potência pode romper com o caráter meramente adaptativo da educação.