Andrew Bowie - Adorno and the Ends of Philosophy

Adorno has been intriguing and irritating me since the mid-1970s, and at times in the intervening period I have given up on him as a major source for my philosophical reflections. The present book is not intended as any kind of definitive account of Adorno, which would anyway be at odds with basic assumptions of its subject. Rather, the reason for my writing it is that changes in the focus of attention of contemporary philosophy, as well as recent political and economic developments, made me appreciate that there was more to Adorno, above all as a philosopher, than I had sometimes thought. Increasing numbers of contemporary philosophers on both sides of the institutional divide between European and analytical philosophy have started to realize that this divide makes little sense. Where change has begun to happen, the reasons often have to do with a new willingness to look at the ways in which philosophy can inform pressing concerns of social, political, and cultural life. It is here that Adorno has come to seem very relevant, in ways which were previously not always apparent.

The further factor leading to the book has been the intellectual, but sadly not the political and real, demise of the neo-liberal model of capitalism that has wrought such destruction since the 1970s, and the need to rethink the contemporary historical, political, and economic situation of the world. This might sound wildly generalized, but Adornos connection of philosophy to the idea that modern capitalism makes the world into a totality, in which systemic factors deeply affect aspects of everyday life all over the globe, has become hard to ignore. Whatever problems there are with this Marx-derived conception, it helps to suggest that the metaphysical aim of seeing how sense can be made of things, as A.W. Moore puts it, at the highest level of generality (Moore 2012, p. 7) is connected to the concrete functioning of the socio-historical world. Adornos work is predicated on the idea that the traditional metaphysical aim of grasping things at the highest level of generality is likely to obscure or repress what does not fit into the metaphysical picture. For Adorno the concrete realization of the highest level of generality in modernity is actually the wholesale commodification of the natural and human worlds. This situation creates the difficulty for philosophy of seeking to do justice to the inherent particularity of things and people, at the same time as realizing that the world is more and more dominated by universalizing forms. Adornos perception that the task of philosophy is to negotiate such contradictory perspectives contrasts with many approaches to philosophy, because resolving such contradictions is for him not a conceptual issue, but a political and social one. This is why Adorno should be looked at in terms of the ambiguous notion of the end of philosophy. What Adorno offers here is flawed in some respects, but he confronts head-on things that never appear on the agenda of too much philosophy as practised today. At the same time, the contemporary changes in philosophy, epitomized in particular by the revival of Hegelianism and developments in pragmatism, have made it possible to think of new ways of addressing Adornos concerns, so shifting the agenda of contemporary philosophy in directions which address issues that interest more than a small number of professional philosophers.

Because of the books long gestation period, the number of people who have contributed is enormous, from Klaus Laermann in seminars on Adorno at the Free University of Berlin in the 1970s, to those who have invited me to give talks based on the book in Bosnia, Denmark, Germany, and elsewhere in recent times. The book would not have been possible without an extension of my Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the invitation of Christoph Menke to work at the University of Potsdam while mining the Adorno Archive in Berlin. Michael Schwarz at the Archive was the perfect host, offering immediate, friendly assistance and scholarly insight, and the Archive was an ideal place to work. While I was at the Archive, Eberhard Ortland offered some valuable insights, and conversations, coffee, and beer with Josh Robinson made days at the Archive enjoyable, as did the wonderful Wednesday jam session run by Robin Draganic at the B-Flat jazz club up the road in the Rosenthaler Strasse. A terms research leave from Royal Holloway in 2012 enabled the final push.

The list of those who contributed (in some cases a considerable time ago) to what I have to say would, if complete, be enormous, so I apologize as usual to those who dont appear. Karl Ameriks, Jay Bernstein, Scott Biagi, Arnfinn B-Rygg, Liz Bradbury, Tony Cascardi, Peter Dews, Robert Eaglestone, Richard Eldridge, Michael Forster, Manfred Frank, Victor Garcia Priego, Neil Gascoigne, Steve Giles, Kristin Gjesdal, Lydia Goehr, Jrgen Hass, Stephen Hinton, Stephen Houlgate, Jonathan Lewis, Nanette Nielsen, Peter Osborne, Ian Pace, Robert Pippin, John Rundell, Kiernan Ryan, Martin Seel, Asger Srenson, Jakub Stejskal, Ferdia Stone-Davis, Corinna Stupka, Mark Tomlinson, Nick Walker, Jeff Warren, Albrecht Wellmer, and many others, were invaluable interlocutors. Thanks go to my colleagues in the German Department and other colleagues in the School of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Royal Holloway, and a special thanks to Richard Pym, the Head of the School, for his friendly, calming influence and geniality. I hope the book will contribute to a flourishing new culture of Philosophy at Royal Holloway, where the students remind one by their enthusiasm and engagement why one keeps pursuing philosophical questions. I would also like to thank the regular members of my Sunday night jazz group in Cambridge: Ric Byer, Laurence Evans, Jon Halton, Joel Humann, Ben Pringle, Derek Scurll, and Pete Shepherd (and other members of the Cambridge jazz scene), who help me combine theory and practice in ways which increasingly inform my philosophical thinking. Sarah Lambert, Emma Hutchinson, and Justin Dyer at Polity provided prompt, friendly, and helpful editorial assistance and advice. A final thanks to Jamie for showing me how much we can learn from children about what matters in philosophy, as well as for making me laugh so much.