E-Seminar: Read and think with Minima Moralia by Theodor Adorno

Description 

Some call Minima Moralia written by Theodor Adorno “unreadable”. Others call it “morbid”. For the purpose of this Seminar, let’s call it an “intellectual challenge” since Adorno is rightly reputed a difficult author to read and to understand. This seminar will only plunge in Minima Moralia. In short vignettes, Adorno analyses what he calls "mutilated life" (beschädigten Leben). Proposing a critical phenomenological approach to daily life, Adorno exposes and denounces different social, economic, anthropological and ethical problems. As he does this, he also offers elements towards epistemology, rhetoric and communication. To this day, his propositions still offer food for thought! This seminar will attempt to have students taste and enjoy it.

Objectives

• Discovering a difficult yet very influential author
• Learning how to read fragmented texts
• Engaging with some elements from the “Frankfurt School” of Critical Theory

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge

• A possible philosophical grid of interpretation for social life
• A knowledge of some points of entry in the corpus of an influential modern author

Competence

• Development of a capacity to read critically difficult philosophical texts
• Development of a capacity to analyze social reality
• Development of a capacity to write succinctly

Steps

Step 1: Staging Adorno

Step 2: Entering and navigating Minima Moralia

Step 3: Staying in some harbours

Step 4: Thinking today within and beyond the limits of Minima Moralia