Nietzsche, Adorno, and the paradoxes of enlightenment

Hashmi, Imran (2024). Nietzsche, Adorno, and the paradoxes of enlightenment. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis is a comparative study of Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844-1900) and Theodor W. Adorno’s (1903-1969) paradoxical understandings of enlightenment. Distinguishing between the ahistorical process of enlightenment and the epoch of the Enlightenment, the thesis will show that both thinkers view enlightenment as a double-edged sword that has come to undermine itself. Far from leading people to new heights, Nietzsche and Adorno believe that enlightenment has enslaved humanity and produced a dry cultural life that is in urgent need of change. This analysis will identify a fundamental difference between Nietzsche’s and Adorno’s paradoxical understandings of enlightenment as they develop different models of enlightenment: Nietzsche’s is antithetical, and Adorno’s is dialectical. They maintain these understandings of enlightenment when writing on different topics, and the aesthetic and cultural spheres are important areas in which the paradoxes of enlightenment are on display. Their aesthetic thought includes examinations of artists. The most prominent of these common case studies is Richard Wagner (1813-1883), and Chapter Five of this study will highlight how Nietzsche and Adorno maintain their paradoxical understandings of enlightenment in a practical examination of art. However, neither Nietzsche nor Adorno gives up hope for a new kind of enlightened future. Both thinkers seek to reshape enlightenment by ridding it of what they think caused its downfall. For Nietzsche this process involves redressing what he considers to be an imbalance between reason and non-reason, which he states has removed vigour and vitality from human existence; and Adorno wishes to overcome instrumental reason and intellectual rigidity, which he believes have led to the establishment of a pernicious system of cultural and economic control. Enlightenment is not doomed, but it must be freed from the forces that have restricted its potential to liberate humanity.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):