Adorno and Marx

Abstract

Abstract While a Marxist himself, Adorno argues that the analysis of the capitalist system cannot carry its analytic and critical clout unless it is accompanied by a keen interest in system-induced suffering. His insight into the conceptual system of capitalism thus takes Adorno in the opposite direction to his students, Backhaus and Reichelt, who founded the New Reading of Marx. They analyzed capitalist concepts and their systematic connections. However, Adorno reflects on the oppressive nature of systems and the difference that still exists between concepts and the human beings they refer to. In doing so, Adorno develops an unusual critique of capitalism—and indeed of more traditional Marxism—that both draws on Marx and bears similarities to anti-oppressive reasoning.