The Labour of the Negative Hegel and Adorno

115 Pages·2000·5.93 MB·English

The Labour of the Negative
Hegel and Adorno
Mark F. Hiller
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in
partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Master of Arts
Graduate Programme in Philosophy
York University
Toronto, Ontario
March 1999
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THE M O U R OF THE NEGATIVE: HEGEL AND ADORNO
MARK F. HILLER
by
a thesis subrnined to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of York
University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degreeof Master of Arts
- 1999
Permission has been granted to the LIBRARY OF YORK UNI-
VERSITY to lend or seIl copies of this thesis. 10 the
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MICROFILMS io publish an abstract of this thesis.
The author reserves other publication rights. and neither the
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wise reproduced without the author's writîen permission.
Abstract
Hegel's philosophy occupies û. relatively privileged position in Adorno's thought. but like
many Mmists his relation to Hegel is equivocd. Although he is indebted to Hegel for
uticulating the negative and dialectical nature of experience. he is critical of the positive
and undialrciicd charmer of Hegel's speculative idealism. The genuinely didectical for
Adorno always remains negative. This thesis outlines the basic concepts of Hegel's
description of experience and examines Adorno's critique. pmicularly in connection to
the Plrenornenology of Spirit. An argument is developed that defends the spirit of
Adorno's Marxism while crîticising certain aspects of his daim chat Hegel cuts didectics
short .
Ackno wledgeme nts
Sincere thanks to my supervisor. Mildred Bakan. for her sympathetic guidance a d k ind
enthusirtsrn. She is a rare scholar, tacher, and human being. Thanks dso to Howard
Adelman for his invaluable contribution to my knowledge of Hegel; and to Esteve
Morera and Trd Winslow for their generous time and support.
Faust: Who then are you?
Mephistopheles: Part of u powr rhar rvould
Alune work evil, but engendrrs good.
Faust: Wzat hidden rnearring in this riddle lies ?
Mephisropheles: The spirit 1, dlat eniilessly denies.
And rightly, too; for al! rhat cornes to birrti
Is fit for overthrow, as nothing worth;
Wherefore the world were better sterilized;
Thus al1 that 's here Evil recognized
Is gain ro rne, and downfall, min, sin
The very element I prosper in.
Contents
A bstract iv
Acknowledgements V
A bbreviations viii
Introduction: The Labour of the Negative 1
1. Dialectics and Phenomenology 4
2. Commodity Fetishism, Reification, Identity Thinking 23
3. The Rational Kernei within the Mystical Shell 19
4. The Standpoint of Science, Absolute Knowing 81
Bibliography 103
vii
A bbreviations
Works by Adorno
fvD Nrgarive Dialrctics. trans. A.B. Ashton (New York: Continuum, 1973 ).
ThS Hegel: TItree Stiidies. trans. Shierry Nicholsen (Cambridge. Mass.: MIT. 1993).
Works by Hegel
Eni. Erqdopaedia Logic, trans. T.F. Geraets, W.A. SLic hting, am d H.S. Harris
(Indianapolis: Hackett, 199 1 ).
PhS Piienomenology of Spirit, trans. A.V. Miller (Oxford: Oxford University, 1977).
SL Science of Logic, trans. A.V. Miller (London: Allen and Unwin, 1969).
...
Vlll
Introduction: The Labour of the Negative
The main title of this thesis cornes from Hegel's Preface to the Phenomenology ofspirit:
The life of God and divine cognition may well be spoken of as a disporting of
love with itself; but this idea sinks into mere edification, and even insipidity, if it
laclis the seriousness, the suffering, the patience. and the labour of the negative. In
itsclf. that life is indeed one of untroubled equdity and unity wirh itself, for which
otherness and alienation, are not serious matters. But this in-itself is abstract
universality. in which the nature of the divine life IO br for itse[f. and so too the
self-movement of the form. are left out of account.'
This thesis seeks to say something useful about the labour of the negative in the thought
of G.W.F. Hegel and Theodor Adomo. Its underlying theme is that negative experience is
the authentic experience of a contradictory, antagonistic society, an alienated world in
which the individual's desire for self-realisation is repressed and the collective rneans of
acheving it is uansferred to an objective process and effectively cancelled. Its panicular
focus is Adorno's critique of Hegel's idealism. Adomo always emphasises that a radical
transformation of social existence-the construction of a free society in the broadest
;ossible sense, the abolishment of domination and the creation of a new redity, a
socialist society-requires in the first place a radical social consciousness that has the
power to see through the mystified reality of capitalist society and to think the possibility
of transcending this artificially imposed limit. Hegel's contribution is absolutely
hndamental in this connection and hence his philosophy occupies a relatively privileged
position in Adomo's thought. Like many Mancists, Adomo's relation to Hegel is
equivocai. On the one hand, he depends on the central concepts of Hegel's description of
experience-dialectic, determinate negation, and immanent critique; on the other hand.
however. he accuses Hegel of subsuming reality under thought, what he calls identiq
thinking, and thereby positing a ciosed system that puts an end to thought and legitimates
existing society. A cntical theory of society, Adorno argues. must recover the genuinely
dialectical and criticai core of Hegel's thought from the undialectical and uncritical
aspects of his speculative idealisrn. Adorno's revised conception of the diaiectic is an
attempt to supersede the identity thinking inherent in idealist affirmation with the non-
identity thinking or negative dialectics of materialist negation.
Three principal tasks present themselves. The Jirst is to aniculate Hegel's
conception of the dialectic. This shall be accomplished pnmarily through an
interpretation of the basic project of the Phenornenology, a rather narrow focus perhaps,
but justified just the same insofar as this book is. to borrow Marx's apt phrase, "the tme
birthplace and secret" of Hegel's thought.' Nevertheless my reading of the
Phenomenology is supplemented with relevant material from the Science of Logic and the
Economic and Philosophical ~C.fanuscriptsE. ady Wrirings, tram. Rodney Livingstone and Gregor Benton
(New York: Random House. 197% p. 383.