From Negation To Utopia

Zhuangzi and Adorno differ greatly from each other in time and space------one was anancient Chinese; while the other, a foreigner in modern times. However, their aestheticthoughts are surprisingly similar------they are all introspects on the alienation of man's statesof existence. The alienation thought is the core of their philosophies and aesthetics. Zhuangzi traces the root of man's alienation back to the phenomenon that man lost their natural qualities, showing "prejudice" on matter, and were finally enslaved by the matter after subjects had departed from objects and man had departed from nature. While Adorno attributes the alienation to the "enlightenment" that subjects reflect on objects. Both of them trace the source of the alienation back to the original methods of thinking after the separation of subjects and objects, and the civilization originated from it; which is of profundity. In essence, their intensions are basically consistent, i.e., they all refer to the "total alienation" which permeates mankind's civilization. Compared with Marx's labor theory about the alienation in specific historical times, zhuangzi's and Adorno's theories are unilaterally more profound. From concerning the existence of people's lives, through criticizing and negatingthe alienation, and eventually to returning the freedom of lives------these are the commonlogic ways of their aesthetic thoughts.