Margins
Beethoven book cover
Beethoven
The Philosophy of Music
1970
First Published
4.15
Average Rating
286
Number of Pages
Theodor W. Adorno's long-awaited but never finished The Philosophy of Music was published in Germany only in 1993, nearly a quarter of a century after the author's death in 1969. These important and illuminating notes and texts - which remain in fragmented form - were described by Adorno as a "diary of his experiences of Beethoven". The editor of this volume, Rolf Tiedemann, has organized the segments in such a way as to bring out their inherent logic and relatedness. He has added copious explanatory notes and an appendix which serve as an invaluable elaboration of Adorno's frequently cryptic aphorisms.
Avg Rating
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Author

Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno
Author · 51 books

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.

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