Adorno and the Need in Thinking: New Critical Essays is an exploration of the contemporary issues that intellectual and philosopher Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) confronted during the course of his work and writings. Presenting an anthology of essays written by learned contributors, Adorno and the Need in Thinking covers topics ranging from "From the Actual to the Possible: Non-identity Thinking" to "Politics beyond Speech: Communication and the Non-identical", and "On Adorno's Aesthetics of the Ugly". Also presented for the first time in English is one of Adorno's early essays, "Theses on the Language of the Philosopher". The advanced critical discourse is best suited for college or graduate-level philosophy students and practitioners, in this meticulous and thoughtful collection. "Disparaging the seductiveness of classical beauty, modern art depicts human alienation and indicts contemporary society. Yet Adorno attests that, through its autonomy and radical truth content, such art witnesses to a world that can and should be other than it is. 'Works of art, even literary ones, point to a practice from which they abstain: the creation of a just life.'" Highly recommended for philosophy and college library shelves.