Volume 59, Issue 2, Spring 2015
Nathan Ross
Pages 269-290
On Truth Content and False Consciousness in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory
This paper argues that the central notion of truth content in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory is to be understood through the way that art provides a mimesis of false consciousness. The paper is divided into three main parts: in the first part, I examine Adorno’s distinction between discursive truth and aesthetic truth. The latter rests on a theory of non-objectifying synthesis. The second part of the paper shows how art can be understood as a form of mimesis, thus distinguishing it from the ontology of representation. I argue that while there are many forms of mimesis, Adorno gives specific significance to the way in which modern art imitates social rationality. In the final section, I argue that art can be true by imitating ‘false consciousness’ and thus transforming it. I explain Adorno’s notion of false consciousness through four features: (1) there is a rigid bifurcation of enjoyment from work, (2) there is a sadistic enjoyment of violence, (3) there is a lack of cognitive tension between intuition and concept, and (4) there is a false projection of one’s own desires onto others.