Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life (Radical Thinkers Classics)

248 Pages·2016·27.66 MB·English

by  Adorno Theodor.

MINIMA MORALIA
ON A DAi\(,\GED
R[~FLECTl()NS LIFf~
Theodor Adorno
Translated from the German by E. F. N. Jephcott
VERSO
London • New York
Originally published as Minima Mora/ill by
Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfun am Main 1951
to Suhrkamp Verlag 1951
Translation first published by New Left Books 1974
C NLB 1974
This edition published by Verso 2005
All righ ts reserved
The moral rights of the author and translator have been asserted
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 64 2
Verso
UK 6 Meard Street, London WIF OEG
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Verso is the imprint of New Left Books
ISBN 1-84467-05 t -1
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
Printed and Bound in the U oited Kingdom by Bookmarque
For MdX
In grtJtimJ,
aNI promul
PART ONE
1944
For Marcel Proust :z
I
Grassy seat
.2~
Fish in water 2J
Final
serenity :l4
How nice of you, Doctor
~5
Antithesis 26
They, the people 28
If knaves should tempt you ~8
Promise me this, my child JO
Divided-united
30
With all my worldly goods .J
I
Inter pares
3~
Protection, help and counsel .J.J
Le bourgeois revenant J4
Le nouvel avare :JS
On the dialectic of tact J5
Proprietary rights .37
Refuge for the homeless 38
Do not knock 4
0
Struwwelpeter 4
0
Articles may not be exchanged
4~
Baby with the bath-water 4.3
Plurale tanturn 45
Tough baby 4S
To them shall no thoughts be turned 46
English spoken
47
On parle fran¢s 48
Pay sage 41
Dwarf fruit
49
Pro doma nostn So
Cat out of the bag 5,
Savages are not more noble
5~
Out of the firing .. line 5.3
Johnny-Head-in-Air 56
Back to wlture 57
The Health unto Death
$8
This side of the pleasure principle 60
Invitation to the dance 62
Ego is Id 6,3
Always speak of it, never think of it 65
Inside and outside 66
Freedom of thought 68
Unfair intimidation 69
For Post-Socratics 70
·How sickly seem all growing things' 71
On the monlity of thinking 73
De gustibus est disputandum 75
For Anatole France 76
Morality and temporal sequence 78
Gaps 80
PART TWO
1945
Memento 8S
Where the stork brings babies from 87
Folly of the wise 88
The Robbers 89
May I be bold? 90
50
Genealogical research 91
Excavation
9~
The truth about Hedda Gabler 9.3
Since I set eyes on him 95
A word for morality 96
Court of appeal 97
Briefer expositions 9 8
Death of immortality
100
Morality and style
IOl
Not half hungry
I O~
Melange
102
Unmeasure for unmeasure
103
People are looking at you
105
Little folk
105
Uninformed opinion
106
pseudomenos
108
Second harvest
109
Deviation
11:J
Mammoth
lIS
Chilly hospitality
116
Gala dinner ,z8
Auction zig
Over the hills
I ~ I
Intellectus sacrificium intellectus
1.2.2
Diagnosis 23
I
Great and small 24
I
Keeping one's distance
I ~6
Vice ... President
128
Timetable
130
Passing muster
1.31
Little Hans
1.)2
Wrestling club 1:J.J
Simple Simon 1.35
Blackmail
1.]6
Institution for deaf-mutes 1.J:J
Vandals 1.J8
Picture-book without pictures '40
'4'
Intention and reproduction
All the world's not a stage '4J
Damper and drum 145
Palace of Janus 146
Monad 148
Bequest
ISO
Gold assay
IS2
Sur l'Eau 155
PART THRBE
Hothouse plant
161
More haste, less speed
162
Boy from the heath 16.3
Golden Gate 164
Expiry
165
All the little Rowen ,66
Ne cherchez plus mon coeur
167
Princess Lizard
169
Beaute
L'Inutile
171
Constanzas
172
Philemon and Baucis
17J
Et dona derentes
17,3
Spoilsport '74
Heliotrope 177
Coming clean
178
Just hear, how bad he was 179
II servo padrone 182
Downwards, ever downwards 183
Modelofvirtue z84
Rosenkavalier
187
Requiem for Odette
189
Monograms
Igo
The bad comrade
19~
Puzzle-picture 19.3
Olet IgS
I.Q.
196
Wishful thinking 197
Regressions 199
Service to the customer
.200
Grey and grey
20 I
Wolf as grandmother
.20J
Expensive reproduction
206
Conttiburion to intellectual history ~o8
Juvenars error
209
Sacrificial lamb
21 .2
Exhibitionist
.21 :l
Small sorrows, great songs
214
Who is who
.215
Addressee unknown
216
Consecutio tempo rum
.217
La nuance/encor'
219
By this does Gtrman song abide
22 I
In nuce
222
Magic Flute
224
Art-object
225
Toy shop
2~7
Novissimum Organum
~28
Knackery
2.31
Don't exaggerate .2.3.3
Late extra 235
Theses against occultism ~.38
Warning: not to be misused ~44
Finale 247

Puhlisktr's Note
The German text of Minima Moralia has no footnotes. Adorno's
extensive use of literary, musical, philosophical and idiomatic
allusions is, however, an integral device of the whole formal struc
ture and style of the book. Explanations of these has seemed essen
tial, where prior knowledge could not reasonably be assumed in
English-speaking readers. This edition therefore includes brief
decipherments of those implicit or explicit references or citations
where a clarification appeared to be necessary. All such footnotes
have been added by NLB. The decision when to insen them has
often proved difficult. But in general, familiarity with works or
figures in German literary history has been assumed to be less wide
spread among Anglo-Saxon audiences than French references:
hence, at risk of superfluity for readers conversant with the fonner,
more information has been provided where echoes of it are con
cerned. A special problem has arisen with the titles to the aphOrisms.
These comprise six languages in the original - German, English,
French, Italian, Latin and Greek. The latter four have been rendered
exactly in the form in which Adorno composed them, with accom
panying notes. The titles in English, no longer directly visible in
translation, are the following: tA, people, ToUS" Baily,
TIt~y,
English. spolcen, Go/den. Gate,I.Q., Wislr.ful thinking, and WAD is
WAD
(Nos. 7, 2.4, 2.6, 104, 12.6, 127, 1)8). Whether in titles or text, the
great majority of the allusions in Minima Moralia, as will be seen,
involve irony or inversion.
All actual quotations - for example, from Hegel or Nietzsche,
Goethe or Proust - have been newly translated from the original,
and footnoted to standard native editions; to help English-speaking
readers locate the passages concerned, however, translated editions
have been added in brackets in the notes. The only exceptions,
Where existing English-language translations have been used, are
the quotations from Marx and Lukacs towards the end of the book.
I)