AgoraAn open square of thought

Work · Socialism, Anarchism, Marxism & Critical Theory

Negative Dialectics

1966 · by Theodor W. Adorno

Thinking against identity: no concept exhausts its object – a philosophy of the non-identical.

Open in the star map

Introduction

Adorno’s main philosophical work appeared in 1966. It opens with the sentence that philosophy, which once seemed obsolete, lives on because the moment to realise it was missed. A long introduction is followed by a critique of Heidegger’s ontology, a part on concept and categories, and three “models”: on freedom in Kant, on the world spirit in Hegel, and “Meditations on Metaphysics” after Auschwitz. There Adorno writes that Hitler has imposed a new categorical imperative on humankind: to arrange thought and action so that Auschwitz will not repeat itself. The difficult book is the philosophical core of Adorno’s late work, alongside the posthumous Aesthetic Theory.

Connections

Criticizes

More works by Theodor W. Adorno

Appears in

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

As of November 2026 · Improve this page · How Agora is made

Open in the star map