Andrzej Frelek
(Polish Academy of Sciences)
Abstract:
One of the less known concepts in Adorno’s critical repertoire is that of ‘bourgeois coldness’. It denotes a type of affectivity and ethics, in which one’s world becomes reduced to a private sphere, enclosed upon one’s own interests. This reduction proceeds through a process of abstraction from the particularity of other beings, and most of all from their interests and suffering. A form of subjectivity related to such coldness is seen by Adorno as inherent to subjects caught within capitalist social relations which incentivize it. Those who have commented upon this concept in Adorno’s writings rightly see this type of coldness as the prerequisite for various forms of brutality, which is visited upon both individuals and their groups. Unfortunately, it is rather rarely non-instrumentally stretched outside of the realm of human relationships.
My goal in this paper is therefore first to present the concept itself briefly, and then to put forward that the coldness it describes influences, for Adorno, the violence of inter-species relations just as much as intra-species ones. In his writings the indifference felt towards the particularity of external nature is both the key to understanding the indifference of humans towards other humans, as well as a tragedy in itself. It is the condition of possibility for mass slaughter and instrumental usage of non-human nature.
Moreover, I will argue that departing from the critique of this coldness it is possible to speak about ethics of otherness in Adorno. This denotes an ethical approach centered on the recognition of any and all forms of particularity, which is based on an elective affinity with the capacity of other beings to suffer. This is a concept of ethics of compassion and care, and the sole goal of this approach is to prevent suffering in a wider sense and without boundaries.
Bio:
Andrzej Frelek is a PhD candidate at IFIS PAN. His work centers on the relationship of the critical theories of Marx and Adorno to the contemporary climate crisis, as well as to other issues surrounding the human exploitation of nature.
