Abstract:

The article starts from the assumption that theories have different designs. By theoretical design I mean the way in which a theory presents itself to the outside world. One of the particularities of Critical Theory is that it seeks to insert itself into the not exclusively academic world, always aspiring to have an impact on the political and social realities. However, the degree of success depends not only on the will of the respective theorists, but also on the theoretical designs. Here I will distinguish two. While the normative design, represented above all by Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth, is limited to an academic field, Adorno’s “critical design” justifies the theoretical work precisely on the basis of the contact of theory with the concrete political and social realities. In this article I refer above all to some of Adorno’s lectures that have been collected in the most recent volume of his Posthumous Works (Nachgelassene Schriften). The aim is to show that “critical design” has better chances to intervene in the public sphere.

Keywords: