A crítica da racionalidade técnico-científica e a formação do sujeito autônomo em Adorno no contexto da sociedade capitalista

Abstract

This doctoral thesis considers the criticism of technical-scientific rationality and the formation of the autonomous subject in Adorno in the context of capitalist society, with the objective of explaining the dual function of education, in Adorno‘s thought, which is effected by the process of adaptation and resistance of individuals to the socially constituted reality. Adaptation is the stage that integrates the individual into the social collective and resistance is shaped by the development of his critical capacity to counteract what is imposed on him. In order to reach our objective we analyze, mainly, the works of Adorno: Negative dialectic (2009), Dialectics of enlightenment (1985), Education and emancipation (1995) and Theory of Semiculture (1996). From this perspective, we develop the thesis based on reflexive rationality and technical-scientific rationality. By the first rationality one has the intellectual autonomy of the subject, but detached from concrete reality, his subjectivity becomes effective without historical mediations, is constituted in an abstract form. In the case of the second rationality, in proportion as man appropriates scientific knowledge, he has less autonomy to conduct himself in life and to promote human emancipation. This question is reinforced by the educational process, under the influence of the capitalist system, to adapt the subject to the standard of behavior that is convenient for its conservation. In it, culture becomes semi- culture and semiformation training, preventing the subject from appropriating culture to think critically and oppose what oppresses. For Adorno, there is no autonomy of the subject without the exercise of critical reflection or human emancipation as long as individuals do not recover their particularities. For this, he conceives education in two dimensions: it serves to adapt individuals to social collectivity and as resistance to every form of domination. Using the negative dialectic, the challenge of education is to promote in the subject the ability to think critically of universal concepts from their non-identity.