Adorno’s Negative Philosophy of History

Abstract The philosophy of history is a centerpiece of Theodor W. Adorno’s oeuvre. Adorno advocates a negative philosophy of history as opposed to Hegel’s concept of history as a progression toward freedom, without breaking completely with the Hegelian tradition. According to Adorno, universal history has to be constructed as well as denied. In this chapter, the authors explicate in which respect Adorno follows the classical philosophy of history and for which reason he criticizes it as a false principle of construction. The authors argue then for a turn to natural history—Adorno’s own approach which he understands as an answer to the problems the universal history raises. Finally, the authors give attention to Adorno’s negative dialectical concept of progress and outline a universal-historical as well as a natural-historical understanding of progress.