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May 18, 2006
Andreas Molt in Adorno and the Myth of Subjectivity' in Contretemps 3 2002 says that
two features of modern subjectivity can be found in Kant. Firstly, the individual has the power for reason within her and can use it to make her own decisions: she is not bound by the rational cosmological order. As a result, secondly, the individual is free to make her own choices. It is these two features that make the individual a subject.
Strange I though it would have been freedom to make the moral law Myself, but never mind. My interest lies with Adorno. Molt says that:
For Adorno the subject-centered reason of the Enlightenment has deteriorated into an instrumental reason [in the service of money and power]. On this understanding reason cannot set goals, cannot evaluate standards; it is purely instrumental in fulfilling given functions. Reason has become a tool for something else. However, Adorno goes further and questions the autonomy of the subject altogether. People in modern society are passive and unfree.....In this way the Enlightenment created both the possibility of subjectivity, and destroyed its realization in modern society.
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