Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life

Dialectical reasoning is a form of logic where two contrasting or opposed concepts and ideas are compared to each other until one arrives at an insight. Adorno deploys this form of logic constantly in Minima Moralia.

According to the philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, division of labor is how a society distributes tasks and jobs to different individuals. In Adorno’s eyes, division of labor is one of the ways society has become mechanized and workers have become alienated from each other.

Fascism was one of the dominant forms of government in the 20th century, along with capitalist liberal democracy and communism. It was often characterized by an authoritarian government led by a dictator; the use of propaganda that defined the people versus the enemy; racism and xenophobia; and strict state control of businesses. Adorno escaped from the fascist government of Nazi Germany and was wary of the dangers of emerging fascism in any modern society.

Futurism was an early 20th century art movement that began in Italy. It emphasized chaotic, frantic images and took inspiration from technological features like streetlights, cars, and airplanes. Adorno has an unfavorable view of Futurism, viewing it as “barbaric” (146).

A term often used by Adorno to describe his current era, late capitalism is so named because it is a late stage in the development of capitalism. Its characteristics include a globalized economy where everything and every aspect of life—even the arts and everyday activities—have become commodities on the market.

Liberalism refers to a broad political philosophy, but tends to be based around core concepts like representative democracy, universal rights (rather than rights based on one’s position in society), capitalism, the free market, and freedom of the press. Adorno is critical of liberalism and believes it is in decline in modernity.

A philosophical perspective, positivism is the idea that everything worthwhile can be understood through scientific observation and raw data. Adorno sees positivism as part of the mechanization of society and the denial of human nature in modern society. Adorno suggests that positivist attitudes are ingrained in modern society, causing many of the problems in modern life.

In the sense it was used with Karl Marx, production is a broad term referring to the use, making, and distribution of resources and economic goods in a society. One of Adorno’s core problems with modernity is that economics and production overshadow life and society.

Although the term socialism can refer to a wide range of governments, socialist governments are generally those that have a significant degree of public ownership of economic resources and the production of goods. Adorno sees socialism in his day as succumbing to various threats both from the outside and from within the movement, such as the rise of positivist attitudes (53).