FELIPE RIBEIRO

This dissertation offers a commentary on the concept of “natural history” in the work of Theodor W. Adorno, divided into two parts. The first aims to show that this concept seeks to present history as “second nature.” To that end, it highlights how Adorno appropriates ideas from Marx’s critique of political economy, especially the notions of “prehistory” and “real abstraction,” which make it possible to conceive of a history without a subject, in which the abstract universal truly dominates over individuals. This approach not only sheds light on Adorno’s relationship with the idealist philosophy of history but also lays the groundwork for an expanded conception of natural history, centered on the domination of nature — which also entails a critique of Marxism. The second part addresses another dimension of the concept, introduced when Adorno asks about the possibility of interpreting a world that has become second nature. This step gestures toward the potential transformation of natural history. For this purpose, Adorno draws on the notion of “perishing,” employed by Walter Benjamin in The Origin of German Tragic Drama to develop his conception of allegory. Contrary to what most commentators suggest, this dissertation argues that, through this notion, Adorno seeks to make philosophically productive those phenomena that history has cast aside — which, precisely because they do not conform to irrational progress, function as a refuge for something better. This perspective serves as a key to a systematic interpretation of various moments in Adorno’s work, revealing the coherent presence of a theme that has been largely overlooked. Finally, the dissertation shows how Adorno develops a concept of “interpretation” that functions as the theoretical figure through which the experience of these phenomena finds proper discursive expression. The central hypothesis is that, in order to “redeem” what history excludes, the subject of interpretation must evoke within themselves the very faculties and dispositions likewise condemned by the course of the world, thereby establishing a relation of affinity with the object.