The Experience Of Auschwitz And Negative Philosophy

20th century saw too many man-made disasters which make Adorno refuse to accept any idea of theodicy. The most apparent one for him is Auschwitz, a concentration camp in Poland where two million people are murdered by Nazi. He asserts that the guilt context within which he lives after escaping from the Nazi concentration camp burdens him with a responsibility. Such a dark time shed a light on his negative philosophy which is saturated with the experience of Auschwitz. His thought is the emanation of the wish of those who died in concentration camps. This dissertation will argue from two dimensions, one is to explore the influence of Auschwitz event on Adorno"s idea, including the philosophy of history, aesthetics and moral philosophy; another dimension is to borrow from the ideas of other western thinkers to deepen and expand the significance of Adorno’s thought.Moreover, this dissertation will give prominence to the Marxism tradition of Adorno’s philosophy. The historical disaster forces Adorno to turn to a revised materialism, which means the unbearable body agony as his starting point for philosophy. And the trauma of Auschwitz provides a model for understanding negative dialectics. Thus. Adorno’s dialectics insists on a radical critique of everything existing. By the critique of Hegel’s idea of universal history, Adorno asserts that the victims of Auschwitz mock any idea of progress and theodicy. No idea of progress can ignore the scream of millions who are murdered for some ideals. After Auschwitz, even art is faced with a moral dilemma, both to remain silent and to express the horror of Auschwitz is easily lapsed to barbarism. There are two conflicts in Kant’s Categorical Imperative in Adorno’s eyes. One is theoretical, namely, the valid of Categorical Imperative lies on the fact of reason which cannot be guaranteed by reason itself. Another is practical, the formalism of Kant’s moral philosophy cultivates moral coldness which is the key condition of Nazi Holocaust. Adorno proposed his own version of Categorical Imperative,"never again of any Auschwitz". His moral impulse is the fundamental resources for reconstruction of moral philosophy after Auschwitz. This dissertation also attempts to examine the nature of evil in the Nazi Holocaust. The Muselmann in death camps and the related reflection by Arendt, Adorno, and Agamben show that the tension between the disenchantment of death and the death of death is an important framework for understanding the genocide. And it should not be ignored that Adorno’s negative philosophy does not turn to despair as he advocates a non-identity hope from micrology.Above all, Adorno’s negative philosophy demonstrates that historical disaster should not be overcome easily, and only by sticking to the memory of disaster and sticking to the obligation of negative philosophy will human beings be able to avoid being relapsed into disaster again.