Adorno: Modern Art, Metaphysics and Radical Evil

The thesis is that the conception of radical evil holds the key to the problem of the normative grounds of Adorno's critical social theory. 1 & 2 show how Adorno dialectically inverts Hegel's ontotheology. 3 & 4 focus on the axiological dimension of this inversion. I argue that the shudder', which Adorno thinks modern art is uniquely apt to convey, is a negative counterpart to the metaphysical experience of 'wonder'. 5 & 6 show how the figure of Auschwitz establishes both the reality of social evil and the reliability of our experience of it. I conclude by reflecting on the significance of Adorno's favoured metaphor for the absent good.