Abstract

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. ;The thesis is a study of the philosophy and aesthetics of T. W. Adorno, and the tradition of German philosophy of which he was a part. The first three chapters are devoted to four of Adorno's predecessors, Kant, Hegel, Walter Benjamin and Georg Lukacs. Three principal themes structure each chapter. Firstly, Kant, Hegel and Benjamin all refer to the Old Testament in order to explicate their philosophies. Their interpretations of the story of the creation, the Fall and the early history of the Jewish nation are used to develop each author's philosophy of history and society, with reference to theories of law and language where appropriate. Similar themes are found in Adorno in his use of the story of the Lotus Eaters, in The Odyssey, as a metaphor of twentieth century capitalist society . Secondly, each author makes a distinction between higher and lower forms of thought and knowledge. Emphasis is placed upon Kant's use of teleology, the dialectics of Hegel, and the nature of negative dialectics and the constellation in Adorno. Thirdly, the relationships that each author establishes between morality or politics and aesthetics is examined. Attention is given to Adorno's relationship to Marxism, specifically in his use of the concepts of Marxist political economy for the analysis of society, political practice and art. In sum, it is suggested that Adorno's aesthetics and sociology of art must be understood in its German tradition, and that each element of his philosophy must be related to the others, with specific reference to Adorno's analysis of contemporary capitalism. In conclusion it is argued that Adorno's philosophy may be revised by reference to ecological politics