Nichtidentität und Unbegrifflichkeit

A remarkably thorough, thoughtful and original piece of work, fully justifying the decision to compare two figures who hitherto have rarely been discussed together. I have no doubt that the book will be of interest well beyond the company of Blumenberg or Adorno scholars. Martin Jay Based on a dialogue between Adorno and Blumenberg, this book develops a highly original method of philosophical language criticism. By way of this contrasting juxtaposition, it elaborates an understanding of language that is grounded in the dispute between scientific conceptual and social linguistic practice. On the one hand, rhetoric, which has often been (and even today sometimes is) devalued by the philosophy of language, is being rehabilitated. The non-conceptual proves to be indispensable for thinking and speaking - especially for the expression of the non-identical. On the other hand, the unconscious workings of metaphors in orientation is expounded. Drawing on Adorno's social theory, the study reconfigures Blumenberg's metaphorology as an ideology-critical procedure that takes its cue from language in order to ascertain what guides thought and action. The work was awarded the Tiburtius Prize of the Berlin Universities - Recognition Award for Outstanding Dissertations.