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The Final Sentence of Section #151 in Adorno's Minima Moralia Overduin, N. 2020. The Final Sentence of Section #151 in Adorno’s Minima Moralia. Secularism and Nonreligion, 9: 7, pp. 1–8. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/snr.134 RESEARCH ARTICLE The Final Sentence of Section #151 in Adorno’s Minima Moralia Nick Overduin Adorno’s post-World War II statement that ‘No spirit exists’, posited at the conclusion of an essay, pro- vides a crucial window into considerations of modern atheism as well as contemporary anatheism. His utterance occurs historically about half-way between Nietzsche’s infamous declaration of the death of God and these two modern phenomena. His short sentence draws some of its meaning from its immediate context (his essay against occultism), but also from its broader context, the Hegelian notion of the World Spirit. Most significantly, though, it is a highly prescient insight, baldly formulated, and arguably more far-reaching than the madman’s ‘God is dead.’ References are made to various thinkers in the past two hundred years to elucidate some of the possible nuances of Adorno’s statement. Both modern atheism and contemporary anatheism can be illuminated as pivoting around Adorno’s shrewd observation. In the concluding sentence of Section #151 of Minima largest book, its subtitle – Reflections from Damaged Life Moralia, in an essay approximately six pages long and – already indicates its important place in the development consisting of nine different Theses against Occultism, the of his overall philosophy. He began Minima Moralia dur- philosopher Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) says crisply ing the latter part of World War II, and the main themes ‘No spirit exists.’ of his magnum opus in 1966, Negative Dialectics, are This, compared to Adorno’s more usual style, is a sur- clearly visible. He was a neo-Marxist – if crude labels are prisingly straightforward final sentence. Coming from a ever advisable – in that he continued to value Karl Marx’s thinker who is normally nuanced, frequently using dialec- appreciation of the visceral realities of daily life while tical manoeuvres, the truncated elegance makes the utter- being profoundly scarred by the many political experi- ance unforgettable. His previous six pages had analyzed ments conducted so disastrously in the name of Marxism. the cultural phenomena of fortune-tellers, soothsayers, The small essay on Theses Against Occultism consistently astrologists, horoscopes, spells, superstitions, palm-read- advances this neo-Marxist valourization of social reality. ing, messages from the dead, prophecies, and other vari- Adorno critiques occultism mostly because it indirectly ations of occultism, but had not yet ossified into such a increases humanity’s oppression and devastation. ‘Facts blunt condemnation. Hints of the essay’s final conclusion which differ from what is the case only by not being facts do appear, as when Adorno grumbles that the supposed are trumped up as a fourth dimension… It thus reinforces spirits might simply be ‘ill-mannered hobgoblins with conformism.’ (2005: 242). If one wishes to undermine whom it is better to break off all dealings’ (2005: 241). He that fourth dimension decisively, it becomes helpful to also refers to ‘the inanity of what is fobbed off as “spirit”’ finally pronounce: No spirit exists. (2005: 240). But the last sentence, a declarative ‘No spirit The declaration by Friedrich Nietzsche’s madman in exists’, remains impactful for the reader. The statement is 1882 that ‘God is dead’ is more well-known than Adorno’s arguably even more impactful than Nietzsche’s infamous ‘No spirit exists’, but is arguably less sweeping. The notion ‘God is dead’ (1974: 181) since the disappearance of a of God can refer too much to a particular deity within Supreme Sentient Being is perhaps not as pertinent as the some cultural tradition, or can refer to a broader concep- possible erosion of the spirit world in general. tion of gods in general inherited from religions in general. Nevertheless, God could be dead while various sorts of A) Introduction: The immediate context spirits could still be said to exist. People might, in other It is important, first of all, to place this statement and words, give up on the god concept without giving up on these nine Theses Against Occultism within the larger the spirit concept. Adorno takes this further step, a pneu- context of this book as well as Adorno’s thought in gen- mathanatology rather than a mere theothanatology, some eral. Although Minima Moralia from 1951 is not Adorno’s seventy years after Nietzsche. He is not simply rebuffing the notion of a God or gods, nor even a plurality of spirits, as if each alleged Apparition was worth debunking one Trent University, CA by one. Instead, Adorno’s sabotage seems directed at the [email protected] entire realm of spirituality itself: No spirit exists. Art. 7, page 2 of 8 Overduin: The Final Sentence of Section #151 in Adorno’s Minima Moralia This article concentrates on this short sentence for two this conclusion, as if it were a bleak prospect, it would be main reasons. First, the recent rise of the more strident a different kind of statement. Instead, it now seems to be versions of modern atheism may have an important pre- something readers are simply encouraged to confront in cursor in this pithy Adornoesque observation. Popular some sort of an honest manner: The realm of the spirit books like Sam Harris’ 2004 The End of Faith, Richard world is not substantial; there is no such thing as a spirit. Dawkin’s 2006 The God Delusion, and Christopher Though not as theatrical as the madman’s theothanatol- Hitchen’s 2007 God is not Great represent a change in ogy, this restrained declaration of pneumathanatology is tone from the earlier emergence of post-Darwinian athe- potentially more comprehensive. ism in figures like Thomas Huxley, Bruno Bauer, A.J. Ayer, Bertrand Russell, and others who may have wished to C) The broader Hegelian context create safe space for atheistic thinking more than radi- The most important background context for Adorno’s cal denunciation of all believing trajectories. Adorno’s statement is likely the Hegelian philosophy of the World- line erupts historically betwixt these two manifestations Spirit, or Weltgeist (Hegel and Friedrich 1977). Adorno of atheism. Secondly, the simultaneous rise in the 21st eventually accuses the occultists of an empty form of century of contemporary anatheism, along with all its mysticism functioning as ‘the enfant terrible of the mys- versions of mysticism and appreciation for spirit more tical moment in Hegel’ (2005: 244). Nevertheless, Hegel than doctrine, presents an interesting counter-point to himself, according to Adorno, is logically at fault for such these modern versions of atheism, and thus also finds perversions in popular culture. ‘The [Hegelian] doctrine its broader matrix within this earlier perfunctory type of of the existence of the Spirit, the ultimate exaltation of dismissal. A classic text in anatheism is Richard Kearney’s bourgeois consciousness, […] bore teleologically within it 2011 Returning to God after God. Another example is the belief in spirits, its ultimate degradation’ (2005: 244). John Caputo’s 2013 The Insistence of God: A Theology In his later book Negative Dialectics, Adorno frequently of Perhaps, and Peter Rollins 2011 Insurrection. A foun- follows Marx in critiquing Hegel for betraying his own dational philosophical reflection within the orbit of clarion call that philosophy needs to be immersed in anatheism is Charles Taylor’s 2007 A Secular Age. Readers detail. In Hegel’s case, argues Adorno, the execution of who wish to understand this intriguing simultaneity, the this call became ‘caught in a tautology: as by prearrange- intertwined development of both modern atheism and ment, [Hegel’s] kind of immersion in detail brings forth the concurrent anatheism, can benefit from analyzing that spirit which from the outset was posited as total and Adorno’s three simple words and reflecting on the pres- absolute’ (1973: 303). It becomes easy to imagine how cient timing of his publication in 1951. elements of popular culture, e.g. occultists throughout history, could then invoke various ‘spirits’ that are ulti- B) Exploring some immediate implications mately as conformist as that overarching and continu- What, after all, could Adorno’s sentence mean? The reader ous Weltgeist. Even Hegel’s own lofty conception, after might recall that Adorno is definitely not a positivist or all, could sometimes masquerade temporarily as a mere empiricist. His confidence that there is no spirit is not Volksgeist or a Zeitgeist or perhaps even more ominously, interwoven with a corresponding glorification of materi- as a ‘great man’. Adorno is wary about this Weltgeist: alism or scientism. People dealing with Adorno’s broader corpus recognize that he, as a consummate neo-Marxist, In the concept of the world spirit, the principle of routinely refuses to sanction the status quo, as if the divine omnipotence was secularized into the prin- present material world is the only reality that exists. The ciple that posits unity, and the world plan was sec- manner in which Adorno bristles against these flat types ularized into the relentlessness of what happens. of epistemology is especially evident in his most mature The world spirit is worshipped like the deity, a deity 1966 work, Negative Dialectics, as well as his 1956 Against divested of its personality and of all its attributes of Epistemology. To the contrary, Adorno regards scientistic providence and grace (1973: 305). and materialistic angles as a bourgeois capitulation to the prevalence of oppression and exploitation. Positivism, in In his concept of Weltgeist, Hegel was trying to provide a his view, embraces facticity only because it does not wish unity between the abstract and the real, the universal and to face the dismal way in which the factoids have been the particular.
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