Reconciliation Without Duress: Said, Adorno, And the Autonomous Intellectual‪.‬

This article assesses the increasing importance of Theodor Adorno's writings on the work of Edward Said. It argues that Said's growing interest in Adorno derives substantially from his own political activism, particularly his principled opposition to the 1993 Oslo Accords. While it is true that he is drawn to Adorno for his music criticism and his own reflections on exile, Said also finds much common ground with Adorno's warnings against instrumental reason and his prescription that philosophy must retain its autonomy in the world to remain committed to human rescue. Said believed that true reconciliation--unlike that of the Oslo Accords--could only occur through the type of autonomous thought championed by Adorno, where intellectual autonomy refuses to trade away justice, equality, and human rights for false hope. **********