"An Adornian Program of Social Research?"
Presented at the Critical Theory Roundtable, Smith College, Nov. 2025.
Abstract: This paper evaluates the idea that we should conceive of Adorno's critical theory as an "interdisciplinary program of social research." This idea has gained greater credibility as critical theorists have returned to Adorno to rescue him from the criticisms of later Frankfurt School theorists, especially those of Jürgen Habermas. These scholars claim that once the normative core of Adorno's philosophy is properly defended against misunderstandings, we can pursue the program of interdisciplinary social research that Adorno envisioned. Further, they want to show that the Adornian program compares favorably with rivals like the Habermasian critical theory of society. I argue that it is a mistake to so conceive Adorno's practice of critical theory. First, there are biographical and textual grounds for doubting that Adorno thought of himself as the designer or director of an interdisciplinary program of social research. Irrespective of that, second, the standards for comparing Adorno's supposed program with its rivals are question-begging. Third, we can best understand and institutionally secure Adorno's critical theory by conceiving it as a distinct paradigm of social criticism, which I call an "experimental craft practice." On this understanding, critical theory consists of a collaborative community of readers and writers engaged in a particular variety of "experimental research," namely, research and experiments on the techniques and forms of social criticism and on the virtues of its practitioners. This paradigm shift captures Adorno's peculiar focus in his writing on language, the essay form, and psychoanalytic method. It also allows us to conceive of how inheritors of Adorno's critical theory can collaboratively contribute to the ongoing and intergenerational project of social criticism in a more productive way than offering competing interpretations of Adorno's texts.
Presented at the Critical Theory Roundtable, Smith College, Nov. 2025.
Abstract: This paper evaluates the idea that we should conceive of Adorno's critical theory as an "interdisciplinary program of social research." This idea has gained greater credibility as critical theorists have returned to Adorno to rescue him from the criticisms of later Frankfurt School theorists, especially those of Jürgen Habermas. These scholars claim that once the normative core of Adorno's philosophy is properly defended against misunderstandings, we can pursue the program of interdisciplinary social research that Adorno envisioned. Further, they want to show that the Adornian program compares favorably with rivals like the Habermasian critical theory of society. I argue that it is a mistake to so conceive Adorno's practice of critical theory. First, there are biographical and textual grounds for doubting that Adorno thought of himself as the designer or director of an interdisciplinary program of social research. Irrespective of that, second, the standards for comparing Adorno's supposed program with its rivals are question-begging. Third, we can best understand and institutionally secure Adorno's critical theory by conceiving it as a distinct paradigm of social criticism, which I call an "experimental craft practice." On this understanding, critical theory consists of a collaborative community of readers and writers engaged in a particular variety of "experimental research," namely, research and experiments on the techniques and forms of social criticism and on the virtues of its practitioners. This paradigm shift captures Adorno's peculiar focus in his writing on language, the essay form, and psychoanalytic method. It also allows us to conceive of how inheritors of Adorno's critical theory can collaboratively contribute to the ongoing and intergenerational project of social criticism in a more productive way than offering competing interpretations of Adorno's texts.