Abstract

LUCAS PRESTIFILIPPO, Agustín. Demagnification and Aesthetic Rest in the Critical Theory of Society. Sociológica (Méx.) [online]. 2018, vol.33, n.95, pp.65-92. ISSN 2007-8358.

The theses about the aporetic nature of the process of modernization developed by the critical theory of society link the concept of modernity with that of domination. The dialectic the Enlightenment is subject to consists of a movement of self-negation that turns differentiated culture into a problematic phenomenon. The critical genealogy of modern culture concerns itself with differentiating an element that, like in science and morality, also displays this aporia in the subject’s behavior vis-à-vis him/herself sparked by art. However, from Adorno’s perspective, in the subject’s orientation to artistic beauty, modernity experiences itself reflexively. The difference that art is, is explained by Theodor Adorno based on the way the process of desmagification (Entzauberung) comes about in art, which, according to Max Weber’s hypothesis, characterizes the different manifestations of the process of modern rationalization. Based on its unusual participation in this process, art manages to provide an example -due to its negativity- based upon which modernity can recover the strength of its opposition to domination. In this article, the author proposes to reconstruct the aspects of this aesthetic participation in Adorno’s critical theory of society.

Keywords : Theodor W. Adorno; rationality; social differentiation; aesthetic rest; negative dialectic.

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