Theodor W. Adorno (2000) Negative Dialectics (first published 1966 in German), trans. E. B. Ashton, London: Routledge.


In the preface to 'Negative Dialectics', Adorno describes how the negation of negation has been conventionally taken to achieve something positive by means of negation. In the paradoxical phrase 'Negative Dialectics,' he 'seeks to free dialectics from such affirmative traits' (2000: xix). This position is partly due to the apparent failure of philosophy to realise its aims, or to put its claims into practice: 'Theory cannot prolong the moment its critique depended on. A practice indefinitely delayed is no longer the forum for appeals against self-satisfied speculation; it is mostly the pretext used by executive authorities to choke, as vain, whatever critical thoughts the practical change would require.' (2000: 3) One can easily apply this to the academicisation of critical theory, the publishing industry that has built up around it, and the abstraction of theory from everyday praxis: 'The introverted thought architect dwells behind the moon that is taken over by extroverted technicians' (2000: 3). This is a sobering thought for the production of a PhD thesis not least, as 'no theory escapes the marketplace' (2000: 4). Adorno is arguing to a theory that is critical of itself.