Filozofija i drustvo 2013 Volume 24, Issue 3, Pages: 57-80
https://doi.org/10.2298/FID1303057N
Full text ( 253 KB)
Dialectic of the aesthetic in Adorno’s critique of Kierkegaard
Novaković Marko (Učiteljski fakultet, Beograd)
The main purpose of this paper is to clarify the category of the aesthetic in
context of Adorno’s critique of the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. Adorno’s
principal thesis is that Kierkegaard’s famous doctrine of existence and his
individualism contain an implicit ontology, despite the fact that he intends
to overcome objective ontology of absolute idealism. However, this reversal
is hidden from Kierkegaard, and can only be deciphered in the posthumous
history of his work. Adorno’s method is critique of ideology synthetised with
Benjamin’s rather esoteric theory of allegory. His intent is twofold: not
only to expose the abstract character of Kierkegaard’s doctrine of
“objectless” inwardness, but to decipher an implicit historical truth of his
philosophy, the social relations of bourgeois society. In the course of his
argument, Adorno shows that Kierkegaard’s philosophy comes closest to its
truth not in the realm of religious experience and faith, as Kierkegaard
himself believed, but in the sphere of melancholy and aesthetic semblance.
The category of the aesthetic plays an important role in Adorno’s later
philosophy of art, as well as his critique of knowledge in general.
Keywords: Kierkegaard, Adorno, existence, idealism, intérieur, immanent dialectic, aesthetic semblance