The fall of metaphysics: the meaning of Auschwitz in Theodor Adorno's critical theory

• Grant number: 21/12774-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: August 01, 2022
• End date: January 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Lucianno Ferreira Gatti
• Grantee: Giovanni Corradi Sgai
• Supervisor: Georg W. Bertram
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/12436-1 - After Auschwitz: metaphysics in Theodor W. Adorno's late work, BP.MS

Abstract

The research project intends to study the position occupied by metaphysics in Theodor W. Adorno's late philosophy, in particular in the chapter "Meditations on metaphysics" of the book Negative Dialectics. According to the project's hypothesis, the necessary obsolescence indicated by Adorno in metaphysics is an essential element in the formulation of his Critical Theory, something expressed in a synthetic way in the formulation that his thought is "in solidarity with metaphysics at the moment of its fall". In this context, the idea of "Auschwitz" appears both in the sense of summarizing what would be the Adornian time diagnosis, and in the sense of explaining why the fall of metaphysics is irreversible. In this way, Auschwitz becomes central to correctly understanding the position occupied by metaphysics in Adorno's later thought. (AU)