Dialectic of subjectivity: Adorno's material grounding of subjective relations

"The Dialectic of Subjectivity: Adorno's Material Grounding of Subjective Relations" explores T.W. Adorno's ideas concerning objective mediation and the role it plays in both the formation of the subject and its subsequent relations with Others. Utilizing his argument for the preponderance of the object, I examine the social implication for his structure of the relationship between subject and object. Adorno argues for the mutual mediation of subject and object that resists the hierarchical ordering of either. My goal is to bring into focus Adorno's structure of subjectivity as not only being constructed by both the rational mind and a living entity, but also a picture of their relationship as dialectical. I set this in contrast to the structure of subjectivity Seyla Benhabib claims functions as the motor of Adorno's critiques; one that is still able to constitute its world yet ends in a narcissistic relation to the Other. I argue contrary to Benhabib that Adorno forges a path toward proper relations between subjects based on an understanding of the relationship between them that sustains their difference yet is maintained without domination. In the final section of the paper I draw out the logical intimations for a social theory within Adorno's dialectic of subjectivity.