Adorno and Existentialism

Abstract True to the negative dialectical ethos of his philosophy, Adorno’s relationship to existentialism is both positive and negative without resolution. On the one hand, authors such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Samuel Beckett, whose writings are generally placed within the category of existentialism, if not by their choice, serve as influences par excellence on Adorno’s moral philosophy and aesthetic theory, respectively. On the other hand, figures such as Martin Heidegger, the reluctant father of existentialism, and Jean-Paul Sartre, the more vocal progenitor of the movement, represent much that Adorno rejected in twentieth century philosophy. Although Adorno’s relationship to existentialism was neither easy nor straightforward, it was certainly generative. There are common points of interest between Adorno and existentialism that continue to warrant our attention. This fact is evidenced in contemporary scholarship on Adorno and existentialism both separately and on their intersection. Appropriate to one of the greatest influences on Adorno’s thinking during his lifetime, namely, Beckett’s Endgame, no concrete end to the debates about Adorno’s engagement with existentialism appears to be in sight.