Aesthetic rationality and the limits of instrumental reason in Theodor Adorno

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to present the main aspects of aesthetic rationality, as elaborated by Adorno in his work Aesthetic Theory, and to clarify the limits of instrumental reason as a guide for human life. Thus, the article will have two parts: (a) in the first, we will characterize the main features of instrumental rationality, as described in the work Dialectic of Enlightenment, and (b) in the second part, we will present the main points of aesthetic rationality and its relationship with mimesis, which allows human beings to think of a non-violent relationship with the non-identical. The methodology adopted for this article is the biographical review, which provided the necessary elements for writing.