Theodor Adorno Biography

Occup.Philosopher
FromGermany
BornSeptember 11, 1903
DiedAugust 6, 1969
Aged65 years
Theodor W. Adorno, born in Frankfurt, Germany on September 11, 1903, and also passed away on August 6, 1969, was a highly significant German philosopher, sociologist, and also musicologist. The child of a glass of wine seller Oscar Wiesengrund and also vocalist Maria Calvelli-Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno was largely raised in a prosperous, intellectually and culturally enriched atmosphere. He got piano, composition, and harmony lessons at an early age, which would be foundational in his profession as a musicologist and also philosopher.

Adorno began researching approach, sociology, psychology, and also music at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt in 1921. He completed his studies in 1924, and also under the guidance of philosopher Hans Cornelius, Adorno made his doctoral degree with his thesis, "The Concept of the Unconscious in the Transcendental Theory of the Psyche."

In the later 1920s, Adorno joined a multidisciplinary intellectual circle led by Max Horkheimer and Friedrich Pollock. This group, which was mainly made up of sociologists at the University of Frankfurt, sought to combine Marxist materialism with Freudian psychoanalysis to check out social and social issues. Adorno quickly ended up being an important part of this circle, which would later on develop right into the Frankfurt School of Social Research, ultimately working as its supervisor from 1958 up until his fatality in 1969.

Adorno's early jobs focused primarily on songs and also aesthetic appeals, where he looked for to reconcile the suggestions of progressive authors such as Arnold Schoenberg with those of Marxist sociologists like Georg Lukács. In 1935, he teamed up with Max Horkheimer on a research of the sociological impacts of new forms of cultural production, which created the structures for their jointly authored publication, "Dialectic of Enlightenment" (published in 1944). In this job, Adorno as well as Horkheimer seriously checked out the function of reason and also rationality in contemporary society, insisting that the advancement of clinical and also technical progress had actually brought about new forms of social as well as intellectual oppression.

Adhering to the surge of the Nazi regime in Germany, Adorno, who was of Jewish descent, emigrated to Oxford, England in 1934, where he made a second Ph.D., this one in philosophy. In 1938, he moved to the United States, where he ultimately resolved in Los Angeles, California, as well as proceeded his partnership with Horkheimer, who had actually likewise run away the Nazis. Lots of various other members of the Frankfurt School, consisting of Herbert Marcuse as well as Walter Benjamin, also looked for haven in the United States throughout this time around.

During his American expatriation, Adorno continued to service a large range of subjects, consisting of music, sociology, mass communication, and the results of fascism on modern society. A few of his most important works throughout this duration include "Philosophy of New Music" (1949) as well as "The Authoritarian Personality" (1950), a research study of the sociopsychological origins of authoritarianism and also racial discrimination.

Adorno went back to Germany in 1949 and used up a professorship at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, where he helped to re-establish the Frankfurt School of Social Research. In the 1960s, his job continued to concentrate on the oppositions and challenges of modernity, consisting of the rise of consumerism, the homogenization of society, and the dangerous nature of ideology. His late jobs include "Negative Dialectics" (1966) and "Aesthetic Theory" (1969), both of which combined and also expanded on his earlier suggestions.

Throughout his career, Theodor Adorno continued to be deeply committed to the search of social justice and also the essential assessment of the cultural and also philosophical underpinnings of Western society. His numerous books, essays, and lectures have had an enduring influence on a large range of areas, including ideology, sociology, aesthetic appeals, and music theory.

Our collection contains 62 quotes who is written / told by Theodor, under the main topic Art.

Related authors: Philo (Philosopher), Edward Said (Writer), Herbert Marcuse (Philosopher), Walter Benjamin (Critic), Arnold Schoenberg (Composer), Lawrence Taylor (Athlete)

Theodor Adorno Famous Works:

62 Famous quotes by Theodor Adorno

Small: In many people it is already an impertinence to say I
"In many people it is already an impertinence to say 'I'"
Small: Every work of art is an uncommitted crime
"Every work of art is an uncommitted crime"
Small: Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices
"Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices"
Small: A German is someone who cannot tell a lie without believing it himself
"A German is someone who cannot tell a lie without believing it himself"
Small: The good man is he who rules himself as he does his own property: his autonomous being is modelled on m
"The good man is he who rules himself as he does his own property: his autonomous being is modelled on material power"
Small: Today self-consciousness no longer means anything but reflection on the ego as embarrassment, as realiz
"Today self-consciousness no longer means anything but reflection on the ego as embarrassment, as realization of impotence: knowing that one is nothing"
Small: To say we and mean I is one of the most recondite insults
"To say 'we' and mean 'I' is one of the most recondite insults"
Small: For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live
"For a man who no longer has a homeland, writing becomes a place to live"
Small: Fascism is itself less ideological, in so far as it openly proclaims the principle of domination that i
"Fascism is itself less 'ideological', in so far as it openly proclaims the principle of domination that is elsewhere concealed"
Small: Exuberant health is always, as such, sickness also
"Exuberant health is always, as such, sickness also"
Small: Everything that has ever been called folk art has always reflected domination
"Everything that has ever been called folk art has always reflected domination"
Small: Estrangement shows itself precisely in the elimination of distance between people
"Estrangement shows itself precisely in the elimination of distance between people"
Small: Domination delegates the physical violence on which it rests to the dominated
"Domination delegates the physical violence on which it rests to the dominated"
Small: Dialectic thought is an attempt to break through the coercion of logic by its own means
"Dialectic thought is an attempt to break through the coercion of logic by its own means"
Small: But he who dies in despair has lived his whole life in vain
"But he who dies in despair has lived his whole life in vain"
Small: Because thought has by now been perverted into the solving of assigned problems, even what is not assig
"Because thought has by now been perverted into the solving of assigned problems, even what is not assigned is processed like a problem"
Small: Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into
"Art is permitted to survive only if it renounces the right to be different, and integrates itself into the omnipotent realm of the profane"
Small: Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth
"Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth"
Small: Anti-Semitism is the rumour about the Jews
"Anti-Semitism is the rumour about the Jews"
Small: An emancipated society, on the other hand, would not be a unitary state, but the realization of univers
"An emancipated society, on the other hand, would not be a unitary state, but the realization of universality in the reconciliation of differences"
Small: All satire is blind to the forces liberated by decay. Which is why total decay has absorbed the forces
"All satire is blind to the forces liberated by decay. Which is why total decay has absorbed the forces of satire"
Small: Advice to intellectuals: let no-one represent you
"Advice to intellectuals: let no-one represent you"
Small: A pencil and rubber are of more use to thought than a battalion of assistants. To happiness the same ap
"A pencil and rubber are of more use to thought than a battalion of assistants. To happiness the same applies as to truth: one does not have it, but is in it"
Small: Thinking no longer means anymore than checking at each moment whether one can indeed think
"Thinking no longer means anymore than checking at each moment whether one can indeed think"
Small: The gods look in pleasure on penitent sinners
"The gods look in pleasure on penitent sinners"
Small: The first and only principle of sexual ethics: the accuser is always in the wrong
"The first and only principle of sexual ethics: the accuser is always in the wrong"
Small: Quality is decided by the depth at which the work incorporates the alternatives within itself, and so m
"Quality is decided by the depth at which the work incorporates the alternatives within itself, and so masters them"
Small: Insane sects grow with the same rhythm as big organizations. It is the rhythm of total destruction
"Insane sects grow with the same rhythm as big organizations. It is the rhythm of total destruction"
Small: Truth is inseperable from the illusory belief that from the figures of the unreal one day, in spite of
"Truth is inseperable from the illusory belief that from the figures of the unreal one day, in spite of all, real deliverance will come"
Small: Intelligence is a moral category
"Intelligence is a moral category"
Small: In the abstract conception of universal wrong, all concrete responsibility vanishes
"In the abstract conception of universal wrong, all concrete responsibility vanishes"
Small: The whole is the false
"The whole is the false"
Small: The task of art today is to bring chaos into order
"The task of art today is to bring chaos into order"
Small: The splinter in your eye is the best magnifying-glass
"The splinter in your eye is the best magnifying-glass"
Small: The specific is not exclusive: it lacks the aspiration to totality
"The specific is not exclusive: it lacks the aspiration to totality"
Small: The recent past always presents itself as if destroyed by catastrophes
"The recent past always presents itself as if destroyed by catastrophes"
Small: The poor are prevented from thinking by the discipline of others, the rich by their own
"The poor are prevented from thinking by the discipline of others, the rich by their own"
Small: The most powerful person is he who is able to do least himself and burden others most with the things f
"The most powerful person is he who is able to do least himself and burden others most with the things for which he lends his name and pockets the credit"
Small: The man for whom time stretches out painfully is one waiting in vain, disappointed at not finding tomor
"The man for whom time stretches out painfully is one waiting in vain, disappointed at not finding tomorrow already continuing yesterday"
Small: The joke of our time is the suicide of intention
"The joke of our time is the suicide of intention"
Small: The individual mirrors in his individuation the preordained social laws of exploitation, however mediat
"The individual mirrors in his individuation the preordained social laws of exploitation, however mediated"
Small: Proletarian language is dictated by hunger. The poor chew words to fill their bellies
"Proletarian language is dictated by hunger. The poor chew words to fill their bellies"
Small: Only a humanity to whom death has become as indifferent as its members, that has itself died, can infli
"Only a humanity to whom death has become as indifferent as its members, that has itself died, can inflict it administratively on innumerable people"
Small: Once the last trace of emotion has been eradicated, nothing remains of thought but absolute tautology
"Once the last trace of emotion has been eradicated, nothing remains of thought but absolute tautology"
Small: Not only is the self entwined in society it owes society its existence in the most literal sense
"Not only is the self entwined in society; it owes society its existence in the most literal sense"
Small: Normality is death
"Normality is death"
Small: None of the abstract concepts comes closer to fulfilled utopia than that of eternal peace
"None of the abstract concepts comes closer to fulfilled utopia than that of eternal peace"
Small: No harm comes to man from outside alone: dumbness is the objective spirit
"No harm comes to man from outside alone: dumbness is the objective spirit"
Small: No emancipation without that of society
"No emancipation without that of society"
Small: Modernity is a qualitative, not a chronological, category
"Modernity is a qualitative, not a chronological, category"
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