Skip to content

Quotes from Lectures on Negative Dialectics — Theodor Adorno

1903–1969 Germany

← All quotes by Theodor Adorno

6 quotes

What appears as the positive is essentially the negative, i.e. the thing that is to be criticized.

Lectures on Negative Dialectics (1965)

We cannot think any true thought unless we want the true. Thinking is itself an aspect of practice.

Lectures on Negative Dialectics (1965)

When I speak of 'negative dialectics' not the least important reason for doing so is my desire to dissociate myself from this fetishization of the positive.

Lectures on Negative Dialectics (1965)

The concept of positivity in itself, in abstracto, has become part and parcel of the ideology today. ... Critique has started to become suspect, regardless of its content.

Lectures on Negative Dialectics (1965)

The thesis of the identity of concept and thing is in general the vital nerve of idealist thought, and indeed traditional thought in general. ... Negative dialectics as critique means above all criticism of precisely this claim to identity.

Lectures on Negative Dialectics (1965)

The conflicts that tear society apart resemble the distinction between the concept and the particular facts subordinated to it. ... Whatever refuses to abide by the unity imposed by the principle of dominion manifests itself not as something indifferent to that principle, but as an infringement of logic: as a contradiction.

Lectures on Negative Dialectics (1965)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Theodor Adorno (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.