Adorno contra Hegel: Speculation and logic of disintegration

Abstract

The presence of Hegel's philosophy in Theodor W. Adorno's Negative Dialectics has been emphasized by a considerable number of studies. Incorporated into the very modeling of the transformed concept of dialectic presented here, critiques of Hegelian philosophy and the idealistic form of the logical-social structure are two compelling moments for any study that wants to understand the philosophical status of the relationship between thought and reality in the Adornian dialectic. Notwithstanding the recognition of Hegel's privileged position in Adorno's philosophy, interpretations that address such criticisms from the angle of the internal logic of a negative dialectic are rare. From the perspective of this doctoral research, we hypothesize that the logical structure of negative dialectics can be understood as a logic of disintegration. It should be remembered that Adorno not only presents an epistemological critique of philosophical categories but also relates them to the capitalist social form, based on the critique of the idealist configuration of the categories of the Hegelian dialectic. The relationship between social form and knowledge is interwoven in this materialistic philosophical configuration. In order to determine the meaning of the logic of disintegration, we intend to investigate to what extent the Adornian concept of speculation becomes central to the negative determination of the logic of negative dialectics. To do so, we will show how Adorno critically incorporates the speculative moment and presents it as necessary to safeguard the possibility of philosophy.