GABRIEL PETRECHEN KUGNHARSKI

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the different expressions of the antagonism between individual and social totality in the critical theory of Theodor W. Adorno. In several of his texts, Adorno insists that integration under late capitalism is actually a thin layer that hides a process of disintegration, and that the fundamental antagonism between exploiters and exploited persists. However, due to changes in the structure of the capitalist system, antagonism is no longer expressed in the way it was for Marx, who saw the intensification of contradictions as a fundamental component for social transformation. In Adorno’s conception, even though antagonisms persist, they express themselves in marginal phenomena. The present thesis proposes to trace these antagonisms as they appear in different areas of Adorno’s thought. The intention is to show that the theme of antagonism is central to all these areas, and that an understanding of the philosophical and social elements that make up this notion is fundamental to elucidate both the concept of domination that underlies Adorno’s social diagnosis as well as the subjective possibilities of resistance.