Theodor Adorno
Theodor Adorno
Theodor W. Adornowas a German philosopher, sociologist, and composer known for his critical theory of society...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth11 September 1903
CountryGermany
Theodor Adorno quotes about
division-of-labor errors derivatives
The error in positivism is that it takes as its standard of truth the contingently given division of labor, that between the science and social praxis as well as that within science itself, and allows no theory that could reveal the division of labor to be itself derivative and mediated and thus strip it of its false authority.
surveillance authority undisciplined
The invocation of science, of its ground rules, of the exclusive validity of the methods that science has now completely become, now constitutes a surveillance authority punishing free, uncoddled, undisciplined thought and tolerating nothing of mental activity other than what has been methodologically sanctioned. Science and scholarship, the medium of autonomy, has degenerated into an instrument of heteronomy.
lasts emotion tautology
Once the last trace of emotion has been eradicated, nothing remains of thought but absolute tautology.
jargon language authenticity
The jargon of authenticity ... is a trademark of societalized chosenness, ... sub-language as superior language.
culture use triumph
The triumph of advertising in the culture industry is that consumers feel compelled to buy and use its products even though they see through them.
problem
Because thought has by now been perverted into the solving of assigned problems, even what is not assigned is processed like a problem.
aspiration exclusive totality
The specific is not exclusive: it lacks the aspiration to totality.
obsolete
Happiness is obsolete: uneconomic.
anticipation early-life
He who matures early lives in anticipation.
time men yesterday
The man for whom time stretches out painfully is one waiting in vain, disappointed at not finding tomorrow already continuing yesterday.
utopia abstract fulfilled
None of the abstract concepts comes closer to fulfilled utopia than that of eternal peace.
decay blind satire
All satire is blind to the forces liberated by decay. Which is why total decay has absorbed the forces of satire.
heritage body way
The body's habituation to walking as normal stems from the good olddays. It was the bourgeois form of locomotion: physicaldemythologization, free of the spell of hieratic pacing, rooflesswandering, breathless flight. Human dignity insisted on the right towalk, a rhythm not extorted from the body by command or terror. Thewalk, the stroll, were private ways of passing time, the heritage ofthe feudal promenade in the nineteenth century.
culture conformity consciousness
The power of the culture industry's ideology is such that conformity has replaced consciousness