Theodor W. Adorno, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
Immanent critique begins from within. Rather than bringing an external standard to bear on an object — a philosophical system, a cultural form, a work of art — it follows the object's own logic until that logic breaks against itself. The object is held to its own claims; the contradiction that emerges is not imported from outside but wrested from the thing's inmost structure.1
The alternative — transcendent critique — sympathizes with authority in its very form, before any content has been expressed.2 To judge something by presuppositions that do not hold within it is to behave reactionary, even when the critic swears by progressive slogans.3 The "as a Marxist, I..." or "as a Protestant, I..." construction is symptomatic precisely here: the orientation is inserted from without, and the object never genuinely speaks.4
What transcendent critique avoids from the outset is the experience of what is other than its own consciousness.5 Yet immanent critique is not without its own limit, and I have never pretended otherwise. The law of the immanent context is ultimately one with the delusion that has to be overcome.6 The mind, on its own, is unable to resolve the contradictions under which it labors; even the most radical reflection of the mind on its own failure remains only reflection, without altering the existence to which it is bound.7
This is why no immanent critique can serve its purpose wholly without a moment of spontaneity — an outside impulse, something that looks beyond the dialectical structure.8 The fairy-tale figure of the Dwarf Nose, enchanted and deformed, could not discover the rules governing his condition through introspection alone; he needed the wisdom of Mimi the Goose.9
No amount of looking inward at the spell breaks the spell. What keeps immanent critique from collapsing into relativism is that ideas which have genuine confidence in their own objectivity must surrender entirely to the object, without mental reservations — this is the insurance premium they pay for not being a system.10 A successful work, judged by immanent criteria, is not one that resolves objective contradictions in a spurious harmony, but one that embodies those contradictions, pure and uncompromised, in its innermost structure.11
The verdict "mere ideology" loses its meaning before such a work — not because ideology has been transcended, but because the contradictions of the social whole are legible in the work's refusal to reconcile them.12 Dialectical criticism, then, takes immanence further than immanence wants to go. It heightens cultural criticism until the notion of culture itself is negated, fulfilled, and surmounted in one.13
The spontaneous movement of the object can only be followed by someone who is not entirely engulfed by it — which means that immanent critique requires, at its limit, a consciousness that transcends the immanence of culture even while working through it.14 The leap that breaks the closed circle of immanence cannot be hypostatized, as Kierkegaard does, lest reason be blasphemed; but neither can it be dissolved back into the system.15
It comes solely in the performance of immanent dialectics itself, which tends to transcend itself in a motion not unlike the passage from Platonic dialectics to the ideas that are in themselves.16
Ideas that have confidence in their own objectivity have to surrender va banque, without mental reservations, to the object in which they immerse themselves, even if that object is another idea.Hegel - Three Studies, pp. 191–192
Transcendent critique sympathizes with authority in its very form, even before expressing any content; there is a moment of content to the form itself.Hegel - Three Studies, pp. 191–192
Anyone who judges something that has been articulated and elaborated—art or philosophy—by presuppositions that do not hold within it is behaving in a reactionary manner, even when he swears by progressive slogans.Hegel - Three Studies, pp. 191–192
The expression 'as a..., I...,' in which one can insert any orientation, from dialectical materialism to Protestantism, is symptomatic of that.Hegel - Three Studies, pp. 191–192
Transcendent critique avoids from the outset the experience of what is other than its own consciousness.Hegel - Three Studies, pp. 191–192
The limit of immanent critique is that the law of the immanent context is ultimately one with the delusion that has to be overcome.Negative Dialectics, p. 182
On its own it is unable to resolve the contradictions under which it labours. Even the most radical reflection of the mind on its own failure is limited by the fact that it remains only reflection, without altering the existence to which...Prisms, p. 36
No immanent critique can serve its purpose wholly without outside knowledge, of course—without a moment of immediacy, if you will, a bonus from the subjective thought that looks beyond the dialectical structure.Negative Dialectics, p. 182
No amount of introspection would let him discover the rules governing his deformity and his labor; he needs an outside impulse, the wisdom of 'Mimi the Goose.'Negative Dialectics, p. 182
Ideas that have confidence in their own objectivity have to surrender va banque, without mental reservations, to the object in which they immerse themselves, even if that object is another idea; this is the insurance premium they pay for not being a system.Hegel - Three Studies, pp. 191–192
A successful work, according to immanent criticism, is not one which resolves objective contradictions in a spurious harmony, but one which expresses the idea of harmony negatively by embodying the contradictions, pure and uncompromised, in its innermost structure.Prisms, p. 36
Confronted with this kind of work, the verdict 'mere ideology' loses its meaning.Prisms, p. 36
What distinguishes dialectical from cultural criticism is that it heightens cultural criticism until the notion of culture is itself negated, fulfilled and surmounted in one.Prisms, p. 33
The spontaneous movement of the object can be followed only by someone who is not entirely engulfed by it.Prisms, p. 33
Neither can we hypostatize the leap, as Kierkegaard does, lest we blaspheme against reason.Negative Dialectics, p. 182
Yet that instant—truly the first qualitative leap—comes solely in the performance of immanent dialectics, which tends to transcend itself in a motion not at all unlike the passage from Platonic dialectics to the ideas, which 'are in-themselves.'Negative Dialectics, p. 182