Abstracts of issue 9 (1997)

Critical Reconstruction of Aesthetic Concepts in the Work of T. W. Adorno

The aim of the present article is to discuss certain aesthetic categories in the work of Adorno. Adorno’s aesthetic theory analyses concepts of an emotional, “irrational” origine (such as pain / Leid, redemption / Erlösung, destruction, happiness / Glück, despair e.a.) in the light of the historical and philosophical dialectics.

This article deals with the relation of these concepts to those of modern philosophy and aesthetics from Kant on. As such are considered mainly the concepts of the “aesthetic idea”, of the “sublime” (Erhaben), of the “dialectics of the general and the particular” e.a.

It focuses on the concept of the rational in the aesthetic theory of Adorno and argues that this concept coincides, for Adorno, with a concept of critical reflexion, which can be applied in contents that from their very nature do not allow for a rational construction, as for example a work of art, and especially a musical work.

To this aim, some basic bibliography as well as new additions to the analysis of the philosophy and the music of Adorno are brought forward.

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