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Adorno’s Genetic Phenomenology

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Critical Theory and Phenomenology

Part of the book series: Contributions to Phenomenology ((CTPH,volume 125))

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Abstract

There is a certain consensus among contemporary phenomenologists tackling Adorno’s criticism of Husserl in saying that, while some of Adorno’s objections may hold true for Husserl’s early writings, they certainly don’t apply when considering his later thinking and especially his turn to genetic phenomenology. This view generally rests upon the assumption that Adorno was by no means familiar with those later aspects of Husserl’s philosophy. Against the backdrop of these interpretations, the present chapter intends to show that Adorno was in fact surprisingly well aware of Husserl’s genetic turn, in devoting several key reflections to this issue. Moreover, the chapter concludes, these reflections may prove relevant for better assessing the potential of genetic phenomenology itself.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See especially Kramer and Wilcock 1999 and Wolff 2006.

  2. 2.

    Kaufmann 1940, p. 124.

  3. 3.

    Bedorf 2017, p. 333.

  4. 4.

    See the yet unpublished lecture course of the summer semester 1956: “Darstellung und Kritik der reinen Phänomenologie”, Frankfurt a. Main: Adorno Archiv.

  5. 5.

    See for this also Ferencz-Flatz and Staiti 2018.

  6. 6.

    Adorno & Horkheimer 2003 p. 447.

  7. 7.

    GS 5, p. 219; En., p. 216.

  8. 8.

    See Welton 2003, p. 267 and Luft 2009, p. 62.

  9. 9.

    See for this Ferencz-Flatz and Staiti 2018, pp. 19 f.

  10. 10.

    This argument is expressed most forcefully in the 1956 lecture course “Darstellung und Kritik der reinen Phänomenologie“, Frankfurt a. Main: Adorno Archiv, as well as GS 20/1, p. 92 f.

  11. 11.

    See especially GS 20/1, pp. 112 f.

  12. 12.

    GS 5, p. 201; En., p. 197.

  13. 13.

    See for this Ferencz-Flatz 2011.

  14. 14.

    Husserl 1973, p. 58.

  15. 15.

    Sakakibara 2008.

  16. 16.

    Steinbock 2003.

  17. 17.

    Hua XXXIX, p. 423 f.

  18. 18.

    This point is again developed most extensively in the unpublished 1956 lecture course “Darstellung und Kritik der reinen Phänomenologie“, Frankfurt a. Main: Adorno Archiv. Significantly, the same lecture course moves on to plea for an immanent critique of Durkheim and Mauss’ sociological genealogy of logic, which he here regards as a necessary complement to his criticism of Husserl.

  19. 19.

    This point is developed most extensively in the original manuscript of Adorno’s Oxford dissertation, Theodor W. Adorno Archiv, Frankfurt a. Main, Ts 2959 ff.

  20. 20.

    See chapter “Eidetic Intuition and Physiognomic Interpretation”, pp. 19–37.

  21. 21.

    With regard to Husserl’s concept of “secondary passivity” see for instance Husserl 1973, p. 279. Cf. also Biceaga 2010, pp. 43 ff.

  22. 22.

    GS 8, p. 320. See for this also chapter “Eidetic Intuition and Physiognomic Interpretation”, pp. 19–37.

  23. 23.

    GS 5, p. 160 f.; En., p. 155 f.

  24. 24.

    Husserl 1998, p. 137.

  25. 25.

    Both quotes are from Adorno’s original Oxford manuscript, Theodor W. Adorno Archiv, Frankfurt a. Main, Ts 2959 ff.

  26. 26.

    Adorno 2017, p. 245.

  27. 27.

    Pugliese 2018.

  28. 28.

    Husserl 1973, p. 75.

  29. 29.

    Husserl 2001, p. 627.

  30. 30.

    GS 20/1, p. 81 f.

  31. 31.

    GS 20/1, p. 92.

  32. 32.

    See for this chapter “Eidetic Intuition and Physiognomic Interpretation”, pp. 19–37.

  33. 33.

    It would be worthwhile to explore the analogies between this move and Heidegger’s philosophical integration of history as “historicity”, which Adorno criticizes in the Negative Dialectics as a case of “ontologization of the ontic”, GS 6, p. 119 f.

  34. 34.

    GS 20/1, p. 92 f.

  35. 35.

    See for this also Ferencz-Flatz 2017.

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  1. Alexandru Dragomir Institute for Philosophy, Bucharest, Romania

    Christian Ferencz-Flatz

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Ferencz-Flatz, C. (2023). Adorno’s Genetic Phenomenology. In: Critical Theory and Phenomenology . Contributions to Phenomenology, vol 125. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27615-6_3

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