Texturalism and Performance – Adorno's Theory of Truth Owen James Hulatt PhD University of York Department of Philosophy August 2011 Abstract This thesis establishes a new reading of Adorno‟s theory of truth. I argue that Adorno posits truth as being mutually constituted by dialectical philosophical texts, and the agent‟s cognitive engagement and „performance‟ of these texts. This reading is founded on an interpretation of Adorno as a transcendental philosopher, who grounds the transcendental necessity of concepts in the requirements of self-preservation. The agent‟s performative interaction with the text is held to provide access to truth by virtue of interfering with the conceptual mediation of the agent‟s experience. I go on to argue that this conception of truth is also at play in Adorno‟s philosophy of art. I claim that the artwork, for Adorno, presents a dialectically constituted whole which, when performatively engaged with by the agent, disrupts the conceptual mediation of his or her experience, and provides access to the truth. While I show that Adorno considers his theory of truth content for art and philosophy to be unified, I also demonstrate that Adorno nonetheless maintains the differentiation between art and philosophy. I do this by providing a new interpretation of the relationship which Adorno draws between aesthetic autonomy and heteronomy. 2 Table of Contents Introduction …..............................................................................................................7 Chapter 1 – Conceptual Mediation and Necessity 1.1 Introductory Stipulations...............................................................................11 1.2 The status of the true...................................................................................11 1.3 Adorno's Theory of Experience....................................................................13 1.4 Adorno's Deduction......................................................................................15 1.5 Non-conceptual Experience.........................................................................17 1.6 Occasioning Concepts.................................................................................18 1.7 Tautology and Language..............................................................................20 1.8 From Tautology to Language.......................................................................25 1.8.1 An Exegetical Problem..................................................................26 1.8.2 The Possibility of Non-Conceptual Experience.............................27 1.9 Discontinuity and Conceptuality...................................................................30 1.10 The Absence of Ontology...........................................................................31 1.11 Weak Ontology...........................................................................................31 1.12 The Impossibility of Weak Ontology...........................................................32 1.13 Conceptuality and Self-Interest..................................................................34 1.14 The Nature of the Concept.........................................................................35 Chapter 2 – Totality, Universality and the Concept 2.1 Introduction..................................................................................................37 2.2 Adorno's Reliance on Universality................................................................39 2.3 Universality and Self-Preservation...............................................................41 2.4 The Genetic Fallacy.....................................................................................42 2.5 Self-Preservation.........................................................................................44 2.6 Sociology and Self-Preservation..................................................................45 2.7 Array Universality and Self-Preservation.....................................................48 2.8 Basic Concepts and Universality..................................................................49 2.9 Non-Basic Concepts and Universality..........................................................54 2.10 Non-Basic Universality...............................................................................56 2.11 Setting Out the Solution.............................................................................61 2.12 The Object and Totality...............................................................................63 2.13 Delusive Determination..............................................................................65 2.14 Revelatory Determination..........................................................................68 3 2.15 Ensuring Universality.................................................................................68 2.16 Concept Through the Non-Concept...........................................................70 Chapter 3 – Truth, Texturalism and Performativity 3.1 Introduction..................................................................................................72 3.2 Truth via the Concept / Texturalism..............................................................73 3.3 Texturalism...................................................................................................73 3.4 Negativity.....................................................................................................74 3.5 Mitigating Universal Delusion.......................................................................77 3.6 Adding Concepts..........................................................................................82 3.7 Primitive Correspondence............................................................................83 3.8 The Attenuation of the True..........................................................................84 3.9 An Objection.................................................................................................91 3.10 Negativity Consolidated.............................................................................94 3.11 Negativity and Rich Analysis......................................................................95 3.12 Performativity...........................................................................................104 3.13 Full Performativity....................................................................................105 3.14 Problem 1) How does this performance effect the 'break' which Adorno identified as the desideratum of a dialectical instantiation of the true?...................................................................................110 3.15 From Rhetoric to Break............................................................................114 3.16 Break........................................................................................................116 3.17 Problem 2) How is this performative creation of a 'break' true?..............118 3.18 Problem 3) Why should we want to construe this as Adorno's theory of the true? What is the benefit?...........................................................119 3.19 Partiality and Ongoing Critique................................................................122 3.20 The Historicality of the True.....................................................................123 3.21 Conclusion...............................................................................................127 Chapter 4 – Aesthetic Truth-Content and Oblique Second-Reflection 4.1 Introduction................................................................................................129 4.2 Art, Truth, and Knowledge..........................................................................129 4.3 Knowledge and the Non-Identical..............................................................131 4.4 Artistic Knowledge and Mediation..............................................................132 4.5 The Specificity of Art..................................................................................135 4.6 Art and Autonomy.......................................................................................136 4.7 Autonomy and Heteronomy........................................................................140 4 4.8 Aesthetic Process of Formation.................................................................141 4.9 Aesthetic Materials and the Autonomy of Selection...................................148 4.10 Aesthetic Materials and Autonomy of Function........................................150 4.11 Hermeticity and the Extra-Aesthetic.........................................................159 4.12 Aesthetic Method and Philosophical Method: Towards a Theory of Art as Knowledge...........................................................159 4.13 Creating a Break......................................................................................160 4.14 Dialectical Constellations and the Artwork...............................................162 4.15 The Performative Role of the Agent.........................................................166 4.16 Performative Engagement and Access to the Non-Identical....................171 4.17 Oblique Second Reflection......................................................................174 Appendix - Concrete Applications of My Interpretation of Adorno's Aesthetic Theory …..............................................................................177 List of Abbreviations.................................................................................................184