THE CONCEPT OF NATURE AT ADORNO

Several scholars have, in the last twenty years, rightly pointed out the relevance of Theodor W. Adorno's critique of the domination of nature (Naturbeherrschung) for thinking the ins and outs of the environmental crisis. However, they have sometimes based their enquiries on a shaky use of the adornian concept of "nature". This calls for a conceptual clarification. In contrast to some commentators who perceive in this concept a romantic fetishization of nature, I discuss his thorough dialectical content. I first reframe the Dialectic of Enlightenment in terms of a nature -reason dialectic. I then discuss the concept of "first nature". Finally, I identify what I call Adorno's "dialectical and critical naturalism". The result will be a clarification of the relevance of Adorno's critical theory for thinking some of the causes of the environmental crisis and for thinking the ways we can criticize it.