A Precarious Happiness: Adorno and the Sources of Normativity (Peter E. Gordon)
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Peter E. Gordon challenges the image of Theodor Adorno as a philosopher of unqualified despair.
In A Precarious Happiness: Adorno and the Sources of Normativity, he argues that criticism of a damaged society can still be guided by possibilities for a better life.
The book examines fragments of happiness and human flourishing within Adorno’s philosophy and aesthetics.
These possibilities help explain the standards behind Adorno’s social criticism.
The central question is what gives a critique its force when the world it criticizes is also the source of its values.
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