Author : Peter E. Gordon
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226829197
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (268 download)
Book Synopsis A Precarious Happiness by : Peter E. Gordon
Download or read book A Precarious Happiness written by Peter E. Gordon and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2024-01-02 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A strikingly original account of Theodor Adorno’s work as a critique animated by happiness. "Gordon’s confidently gripping and persistently subtle interpretation brings a new tone to the debate about Adorno’s negativism."—Jürgen Habermas Theodor Adorno is often portrayed as a totalizing negativist, a scowling contrarian who looked upon modern society with despair. Peter E. Gordon thinks we have this wrong: if Adorno is uncompromising in his critique, it is because he sees in modernity an unfulfilled possibility of human flourishing. In a damaged world, Gordon argues, all happiness is likewise damaged but not wholly absent. Through a comprehensive rereading of Adorno’s work, A Precarious Happiness recovers Adorno’s commitment to traces of happiness—fragments of the good amid the bad. Ultimately, Gordon argues that social criticism, while exposing falsehoods, must also cast a vision for an unrealized better world.