Summer 2021: Adorno's Negative Dialectics
Platypus Virginia reading group
Sundays at 5:00 p.m. ET via Zoom (recurring link here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88341966622)
( • required / + recommended readings)
Required background reading:
• six readings by Chris Cutrone, "Revolution without Marx? Rousseau, Kant and Hegel" (2013); Review of Andrew Feenberg, The Philosophy of Praxis (2015); "Why still read Lukacs? The place of 'philosophical' questions in Marxism" (2014); "Ends of philosophy" (2018); "On philosophy and Marxism" (2020); and “The negative dialectic of Marxism” (2021)
Recommended supplemental reading:
+ Adorno, Lectures on Negative Dialectics
+ Adorno, History and Freedom
+ Adorno, Introduction to Dialectics
+ Adorno, Ontology and Dialectics
+ Adorno, Metaphysics: Concepts and Problems
Primary sources:
• Theodor Adorno, Negative Dialectics (1966, trans. E.B. Ashton, 1973)
+ Alternate translation by Dennis Redmond (2001/2021) [2021 updated PDF]
Charts of terms:
+Â Being and becoming (freedom in transformation) / immanent dialectical critique chart of terms
+ Kant's 3 Critiques [PNG] and philosophy [PNG] chart of terms
+Â Capitalist contradiction chart of termsÂ
+Â Commodity form chart of terms
+Â Reification chart of terms
+ Adorno's critique of actionism chart of terms
Week 1: June 6, 2021
• Gillian Rose, Review of Adorno's Negative Dialectics (1976)
• Theodor W. Adorno, "Why still philosophy?"
• Chris Cutrone, "Ends of philosophy" (2018); "On philosophy and Marxism" (2020); and “The negative dialectic of Marxism” (2021)
Week 2: June 13, 2021
• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Prologue (Preface and Introduction)
Week 3: June 20, 2021
• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part One: Relation to Ontology: I. The Ontological Need
Week 4: June 27, 2021
• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part One: Relation to Ontology: II. Being and Existence
Week 5: July 4, 2021
• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part Two: Negative Dialectics: Concepts and Categories
Week 6: July 11, 2021
• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part Three: Models: I. Freedom
Week 7: July 18, 2021
• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part Three: Models: II. World Spirit and Natural History
Week 8: July 25, 2021
• Adorno, Negative Dialectics, Part Three: Models: III. Meditations on Metaphysics
+ Cutrone, "Ends of philosophy" (2018); "On philosophy and Marxism" (2020); and “The negative dialectic of Marxism” (2021)
Platypus Summer 2021: Adorno's Negative Dialectics - Platypus (platypus1917.org)