Finlayson, James Gordon (2014) Hegel, Adorno and the origins of immanent criticism. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 22 (6). pp. 1142-1166. ISSN 0960-8788

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Abstract

‘Immanent criticism' has been discussed by philosophers of quite different persuasions, working in separate areas and in different traditions of philosophy. Almost all of them agree on roughly the same story about its origins: It is that Hegel invented immanent criticism, that Marx later developed it, and that the various members of the Frankfurt School, particularly Adorno, refined it in various ways, and that they are all paradigmatic practitioners of immanent criticism. I call this the Continuity Thesis. There are four different claims that interest me. (i) Hegel is the originator of immanent criticism. (ii) Hegel's dialectical method is that of immanent criticism. (iii) Adorno practises immanent criticism and endorses the term as a description of his practice. (iv) Adorno's dialectical method is fundamentally Hegelian. In this article, I offer an account of immanent criticism, on the basis of which, I evaluate these four claims and argue that the Continuity Thesis should be rejected.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of History, Art History and Philosophy > Philosophy
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BD Speculative Philosophy > BD010 General philosophical works B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BD Speculative Philosophy > BD240 Methodology D History General and Old World > DD History of Germany > DD301 Prussia > DD341 History J Political Science > JA Political science (General) > JA0071 Theory. Relation to other subjects
Depositing User:	Gordon Finlayson
Date Deposited:	26 Nov 2014 16:40
Last Modified:	10 Aug 2020 12:59
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/51480

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