One of Theodor Adorno's most important works, Against Epistemology inspired Habermas and Marcuse and continues to influence other eminent thinkers in philosophy and the social sciences today. Against Epistemology is in essence a long essay against Western metaphysics or, as Adorno put it, "the lordship of the subject." Adorno's thought was a nexus of analytic philosophy, social theory, and cultural criticism, and components of all three are found in this book. It takes as its starting point Husserl's phenomenological method and Adorno's critique of Husserl's belief that phenomenology constitutes a genuine scientific method. Moving forward—since "Husserl's philosophy is the occasion and not the point of this book"—Adorno demonstrates why the Frankfurt School rejected the methods of the natural sciences as a model for the development of the social sciences. These considerations lead directly to the book's primary argument: Adorno's refutation of the claim of Western philosophy since the time of Aristotle to hold the key to truths that are beyond doubt and that transcend presuppositions through the unaided instrumentality of human reason. Adorno takes as his epigraph a fragment from Epicharmus: "A mortal must think mortal and not immortal thoughts." Adorno wrote this work in Oxford during the first years of his exile, between 1934 and 1937. He assembled and edited the manuscript in Frankfurt for its first publication in 1956.
Author
Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno was one of the most important philosophers and social critics in Germany after World War II. Although less well known among anglophone philosophers than his contemporary Hans-Georg Gadamer, Adorno had even greater influence on scholars and intellectuals in postwar Germany. In the 1960s he was the most prominent challenger to both Sir Karl Popper's philosophy of science and Martin Heidegger's philosophy of existence. Jürgen Habermas, Germany's foremost social philosopher after 1970, was Adorno's student and assistant. The scope of Adorno's influence stems from the interdisciplinary character of his research and of the Frankfurt School to which he belonged. It also stems from the thoroughness with which he examined Western philosophical traditions, especially from Kant onward, and the radicalness to his critique of contemporary Western society. He was a seminal social philosopher and a leading member of the first generation of Critical Theory. Unreliable translations hampered the initial reception of Adorno's published work in English speaking countries. Since the 1990s, however, better translations have appeared, along with newly translated lectures and other posthumous works that are still being published. These materials not only facilitate an emerging assessment of his work in epistemology and ethics but also strengthen an already advanced reception of his work in aesthetics and cultural theory.
