Misinterpreting Negativism: on Peter E. Gordon’s "A Precarious Happiness: Adorno and the Sources of Normativity"

Adorno’s philosophy was long overshadowed by the accusation that it is too negative, before defences of his negativist stance have contributed to its revival in the last two decades. Peter Gordon, in his newest book, seeks to intervene in this context by rejecting negativistic readings and painting Adorno instead as someone who accepts that precarious happiness exists in the current wrong social world, which, in turn, gives us a glimpse of comprehensive happiness to come and is the source for his immanent social critique of that world. In this Review Article, I critically discuss Gordon’s rejection of negativism. I suggest that there is a danger of conflating negativism with other views that are distinct from it, and that such misinterpretations are, unfortunately, at the heart of Gordon’s book. I also identify an important challenge to negativism, and sketch how it might be addressed. I conclude that there is no need to appeal to anything positive—be it communicative action or even precarious happiness. Instead, we should embrace the freedom of thought to negate all.