Valences of the Dialectic.Antagonistic Totality and a Possibilityof Emancipation without Totality

Abstract

Later developers of critical theory have criticized Adorno for allegedly blocking any possibility of social change, thus falling in a pessimistic and contradictory logic of frustrated emancipation under which there is no apparent alternative to social domination. I will attempt to show that this criticism is partially correct. Nevertheless, I also suggest that his social theory offers an original concept of emancipation without totality, providing relevant keys for the contemporary pursue of critical social theory under a partially pluralistic context.