Aesthetic TheoryTheodor Adorno (1903-69) was undoubtedly the foremost thinker of the Frankfurt School, the influential group of German thinkers that fled to the US in the 1930s, including such thinkers as Herbert Marcuse and Max Horkheimer. His work has proved enormously influential in sociology, philosophy and cultural theory. Aesthetic Theory is Adorno's posthumous magnum opus and the culmination of a lifetime's investigation. Analysing the sublime, the ugly and the beautiful, Adorno shows how such concepts frame and distil human experience and that it is human experience that ultimately underlies aesthetics. In Adorno's formulation 'art is the sedimented history of human misery'. |
Contents
Chapter 1 Art Society Aesthetics | 1 |
Chapter 2 Situation | 23 |
Chapter 3 On the Categories of the Ugly the Beautiful and Technique | 63 |
Chapter 4 Natural Beauty | 85 |
Apparition Spiritualization Intuitability | 109 |
Chapter 6 Semblance and Expression | 139 |
Chapter 7 Enigmaticalness Truth Content Metaphysics | 163 |
Chapter 8 Coherence and Meaning | 187 |
Chapter 10 Toward a Theory of the Artwork | 241 |
Chapter 11 Universal and Particular | 273 |
Chapter 12 Society | 307 |
Chapter 13 Paralipomena | 355 |
Chapter 14 Theories on the Origin of Art Excursus | 429 |
Chapter 15 Draft Introduction | 439 |
Chapter 16 Editors Afterword | 477 |
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Common terms and phrases
able abstract according achieved actually adorno aesthetic already appearance art’s artistic artworks aspect authentic beauty became becomes bourgeois called character claim classicism completely concept consciousness constitutive construction critical critique culture determinate dialectic difference domination effect element empirical essence everything existence experience expression extent external fact false fashion force formal function hegel historical human idea ideal identity immanent immediately individual integration intention judgment knowledge language less logic longer material means mediated mimetic movement natural beauty nature nevertheless object objectivation once opposition organization origin particular philosophy play position possible precisely present principle production progress pure question rationality reality reason reflection relation remains requires result semblance sense simply situation social society speak spirit structure sublime takes technique theory things thought traditional transformed true truth content turn ultimately unity universal virtue wants whole