Adorno’s Ethical Materialism

Abstract When scholars use the word “materialism,” in either a specifically Marxist or generally philosophical sense, the term is not applied in such a way that it would seem to be inclusive of the work of Theodor Adorno: Adorno was not a deterministic historical materialist nor was Adorno a reductionist philosopher of mind. However, Adorno frequently invokes “materialist” motifs at prominent points throughout his work: his philosophical outlook was, at least in terms of his own self-conception, always a “materialist” one. This chapter clears up any mysteries surrounding Adorno’s materialism by explaining that he was an “inclusive” (as opposed to “exclusive”) materialist—and that the main point of his holding the version of materialism that he did, was to make an ethical point, as opposed to a metaphysical one.