Philosophy 577 Adorno and Freedom

Instructor: Dr. Deborah Cook Office Hours: CHN 2171, Monday from 4 to 6 p.m., or by appointment Telephone: 253-3000, Extension 2340

Course Description: Theodor W. Adorno rejects both free will and determinism: the doctrine of free will is false because it ignores the pervasive influence of social, economic, and political institutions and agencies over individuals, but determinism is equally wrong because it suggests that individuals are mere pawns of the existing order. In this course, we shall explore Adorno’s aporetic account of freedom under late capitalism. Since Kant’s notion of freedom is a foil for Adorno’s notion, we shall begin with a study of Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals and the third antinomy in the Critique of Reason. We shall then study Adorno’s critical appropriation of Kant in History and Freedom, and Part III of Negative Dialectics.

Method: Seminar

The seminar format requires active and engaged participation on the part of each student. Seminars provide an opportunity for students to discuss the assigned material, to ask questions about the material, to share their ideas with fellow students, and to work together co-operatively to deepen their understanding. This is why all students must carefully read the material assigned for each session and be prepared to discuss it in detail and in depth.

Assignments:

One seminar presentation on course material (see syllabus below). The presentation is worth 25% of the final grade. Students will submit their choices for seminar presentations to Professor Cook on or before 19 January, 2016.

A twenty to twenty-five page paper is due on 29 March, 2016; the paper is worth 55% of the final grade.

20% of the final grade will be based on an assessment of students’ participation in the seminars.

NOTA BENE: LATE PAPERS AND ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Primary Texts (available at The Bookroom: 2161 Wyandotte Street West–258-2726):

Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (Cambridge)

______. “Third Antinomy,” Critique of Pure Reason (photocopy)

Theodor W. Adorno, History and Freedom

______, Negative Dialectics

Syllabus

Week I: Introduction to Adorno

Week II: Kant’s Third Antinomy and its solution in Critique of Pure Reason; Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (Preface, Section I)–Dr. Cook

Week III: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (Section II)

Week IV: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (Section III)

Week V: History and Freedom: Lectures 1-6

Week VI: History and Freedom: Lectures 7-12

Week VII: History and Freedom: Lectures 13-17

Week VIII: History and Freedom: Lectures 18-22

Week IX: History and Freedom: Lectures 23-28

Week X: Negative Dialectics, pp. 211-41

Week XI: Negative Dialectics, pp. 241-70

Week XII: Negative Dialectics, pp. 270-299

Secondary Texts for study and research (available in the Leddy Library) Bernstein, J. M. Adorno: Disenchantment and Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Brunkhorst, Hauke. Adorno and Critical Theory. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1999. Buck-Morss, Susan. The Origin of Negative Dialectics: Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and the Frankfurt Institute. Sussex: The Harvester Press, 1977. Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. Aspects of Sociology. Translated by John Viertel. Boston: Beacon Press, 1972. Freud, Sigmund. Civilization and its Discontents. Translated by Joan Riviere. London: The Hogarth Press, 1975. ______. ‘Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego’. The Penguin Freud Library, Vol. 12: Civilization, Society and Religion. Translated by James Strachey. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1985. Freyenhagen, Fabian. ‘Adorno's Negative Dialectics of Freedom’. Philosophy and Social Criticism 32, no. 2, (2006). ______. Adorno’s Practical Philosophy: Living Less Wrongly. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Fromm, Erich. Escape from Freedom. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1941. Herman, Barbara. The Practice of Moral Judgment. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993. [Kant] Hill, Thomas. Dignity and Practical Reason in Kant’s Moral Philosophy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992. [Kant] Honneth, Axel. ‘A Physiognomy of the Capitalist Form of Life: A Sketch of Adorno’s Social Theory’. Translated by James Ingram. Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory 12, no. 1, (March 2005). Huhn, Tom, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Adorno. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Hullot-Kentor, Robert. Things Beyond Resemblance: Collected Essays on Theodor W. Adorno. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006. Jaeggi, Rahel. ‘“No Individual Can Resist”: Minima Moralia as Critique of Forms of Life’. Translated by James Ingram. Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory 12, no. 1, (March 2005). Jarvis, Simon. Adorno: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998. ______, ed.. Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory, 4 Vols. London and New York: Routledge, 2007. Jay, Martin. Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute for Social Research, 1923-1950. Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1973. ______. Adorno. London: Fontana, 1984. Korsgaard, Christine. Creating the Kingdom of Ends. Cambridge: Cambridge University pres, 1996. [Kant] Marx, Karl. The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Translated by Martin Milligan. New York: International Publishers, 1964. ______. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Vol. 1. Translated by Ben Fowkes. London: Vintage, 1976. Müller-Doohm, Stefan. Adorno: A Biography. Translated by Rodney Livingstone. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005. O’Connor, Brian. Adorno’s Negative Dialectic: Philosophy and the Possibility of Critical Rationality. Cambridge, Mass. and London: The MIT Press, 2004. O’Neill, Onora. Acting on Principle: An Essay on Kantian Ethics. New York: Columbia, 1975. [Kant] ______. Constructions of Reason. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. [Kant] Paton. H. J. The Categorical Imperative: A Study in Kant’s Moral Philosophy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971. [Kant] Shuster, Martin. Autonomy after Auschwitz: Adorno, German Idealism, and Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. Singer, Marcus. Generalization in Ethics. New York: Athenium, 1961. [Kant] Sullivan. Roger. Immanuel Kant’s Moral Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. [Kant] Tassone, G. ‘Amoral Adorno: Negative Dialectics Outside Ethics’. European Journal of Social Theory 8, no. 3 (2005). Whitebook, Joel. Perversion and Utopia: A Study in Psychoanalysis and Critical Theory. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1996. Wiggershaus, R., The Frankfurt School: Its History, Theories, and Political Significance. Translated by Michael Robertson. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1994.