Metaphysics concept and problems

Description

This volume makes available in English for the first time Adorno's lectures on metaphysics. It provides a unique introduction not only to metaphysics but also to Adorno's own intellectual standpoint, as developed in his major work Negative Dialectics. Metaphysics for Adorno is defined by a central tension between concepts and immediate facts. Adorno traces this dualism back to Aristotle, whom he sees as the founder of metaphysics. In Aristotle it appears as an unresolved tension between form and matter. This basic split, in Adorno's interpretation, runs right through the history of metaphysics. Perhaps not surprisingly, Adorno finds this tension resolved in the Hegelian dialectic. Underlying this dualism is a further dichotomy, which Adorno sees as essential to metaphysics: while it dissolves belief in transcendental worlds by thought, at the same time it seeks to rescue belief in a reality beyond the empirical, again by thought. It is to this profound... Doctrine of the First Cause -- History of the Concept -- Aristotle's Metaphysics -- Plato, Aristotle and Heidegger -- Universal and Particular -- Genesis and Validity -- Mediation and the Happy Medium -- The Doctrine of Immutability -- Form and Matter -- The Problem of Mediation -- Movement, Change -- The Unmoved Mover -- Athens and Auschwitz -- Metaphysics After Auschwitz -- The Liquidation of the Self -- Metaphysics and Materialism -- Consciousness of Negativity -- Dying Today -- Metaphysical Experience