Adorno's Reconception of the Dialectic

Adorno’s work contains a number of radical criticisms of Hegel that reveal deep philosophical differences between the two philosophers. He represents Hegel’s philosophy as directed, ultimately, against particularity and individual experience. The core motivation of Hegel’s philosophy, Adorno argues, is a concern with system and universality. Conceived in this way it is antagonistic to the idea of non-identity, the very idea that lies at the centre of Adorno’s philosophical project.