Disclosing Critique

The Contingency of Understanding in Adorno’s Interpretative Social Theory

Bibliographic Data

ID2397731
AuthorsT Bonacker (0000-0001-5325-2816, Philipps University of Marburg, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume9
Issue3
Pages369-383
Publication date2006-08-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1368-4310 • E-ISSN: 1461-7137
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1368431006065718
OpenAlexW1997762442
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited18

This article discusses the problem of understanding in Adorno's critical theory. It is argued that another rationale for the contingency of understanding is provided by Adorno, one that justifies understanding critical theory as disclosing critique. For Adorno, what is responsible for the contingency of understanding is not the local limitation of our knowledge and vocabulary, but the presupposition of understanding itself. In this article, two readings of this contingency of understanding are distinguished: an epistemo-critical one and an ideology-critical one. Finally, the case is made for adopting the epistemo-critical view of the contingency of understanding in preference to the ideology-critical view - not least because it contains a normative impulse which goes beyond contextualism

Contextualism · Contingency · Critical theory · Epistemology · Ideology · Linguistics · Normative · Political science · Politics · Presupposition · Situated · Sociology · Computer Science · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Wittgensteinian philosophy and applications

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