Unity, Identity and Difference教程.pdfVIP

UNITY, IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE: REFLECTIONS ON HEGEL’S DIALECTICS AND NEGATIVE DIALECTICS Darrow Schecter1 Abstract: This paper looks at key points of convergence and divergence in Hegel and Adorno on the question of the dialectics of humanity and nature as these unfold in institutions. Bearing in mind the distinct historical periods in which they worked, par- ticular attention is paid to the ways in which their respective epistemologies deliver very different assessments of social and political life in modern societies. This is illus- trated by contrasting Hegel’s notion of recognition with the utopian dimension of Adorno’s ideas on non-identity and mimetic reconciliation. It is shown that in opposi- tion to those who regard Adorno exclusively as a philosopher and aesthetic theorist, his ideas have social and juridical relevance, as well as continuing resonance in the history of political thought. I According to the conception of political freedom and authority that is explicit in the writings of Hegel and implicit in many other modern thinkers, there exists a mediated unity between citizens, law and the state. This constellation of institutional forces binds individual citizens within a collective, territorially-defined and historically specific, sovereign national community, in which the citizens have rights and obligations. The term mediated unity expresses the idea that if there was no way to bridge the distance between citi- zens and the state, representation would be impossible, thus indicating that mediation and the possibility of representation are intrinsically linked with the assumption of an underlying unity. The corollary is that if there was iden- tity or fusion between citizens and the state, representati