Re: [OPE-L] new publication: adorno and social theory

From: Rakesh Bhandari (bhandari@BERKELEY.EDU)
Date: Fri May 13 2005 - 03:46:29 EDT


At 10:40 AM +0200 5/12/05, Hanno Pahl wrote:
>  Of course this refers to Sohn-Rethels attempt to connect the axioms
>of Kant with those real abstractions taking place in the sphere of
>circulation... While Adorno still shared Sohn-Rethels intentions and
>goals I think he became more sceptical about Sohn-Rethels somewhat
>causal explanation of the linkage between forms of thought and forms
>of real abstraction.
>

Gideon Freudenthal has argued that the strong program in  social
epistemology which grew out of  Sohn Rethel's early attempts to
ground the basic concepts
of modern science in the abstractions which are created in and
through social exchange relations explains only very general
characteristics of scientific theories, in relation to which any
specific theory is indifferent; moreover, the program fails to
explain the possibility of acquiring objective knowledge.

It is also surprising to me how little discussion there is of
Adorno's concern with social consequences of  an ethics based on the
kind of abstractions and equivalences which grow out of commodity
exchange.


Yours, Rakesh


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