Theodore adorno biography death

How did adorno die

Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund Adorno September 11, — August 6, was a German philosopher who wrote widely in the areas of sociology , social psychology , aesthetics , musicology, and literary criticism. He took issues of alienation and reification of early Marxist philosophy , and developed them into a critical theory and applied it into diverse cultural genres.

In the Dialectic of Enlightenment, co-authored with Horkheimer, Adorno examined the notions of Enlightenment , modernity , and rationality, and argued that the Enlightenment had a self-destructive irrational element from its outset, and the barbarous states were a necessary outcome. The work was colored with a pessimistic tone, however, Adorno found hope in the liberating power of the arts and carried out an extensive criticism against mass culture.

Habermas was critical of Adorno and tried to re-formulate the notion of rationality. Theodor or "Teddie" was born in Frankfurt as an only child to the wine merchant Oscar Alexander Wiesengrund , of Jewish descent, converted to Protestantism and the Catholic singer Maria Barbara, born Calvelli-Adorno. It is the second half of this name that he later adopted as his surname Wiesengrund was abbreviated to W.

His musically talented aunt Agathe also lived with the family. The young Adorno passionately engaged in four-handed piano playing. His childhood joy was increased by the family's annual summer sojourn in Amorbach. He attended the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gymnasium, where he proved to be a highly gifted student: At the exceptionally early age of 17, he graduated from the Gymnasium at the top of his class.

In his free time he took private lessons in composition with Bernhard Sekles and read Kant 's Critique of Pure Reason together with his friend, Siegfried Kracauer—14 years his elder.