The antinomies of progress. Notes on Adorno’s critical theory and the concept of progress in our time

Today the idea of progress is confronted with global authoritarian regressions, the looming climate catastrophe, the partial dissolution of recognizable boundaries between human agency and artificial intelligence, as well as omnipresent forms of digital reproduction in which seemingly every human interaction is identified, measured, counted, objectified, and valorized. Turning is especially to Adorno’s essay on “Progress,” I address these four steep challenges facing contemporary society and their meaning for (moral) progress from the perspective of Frankfurt School Critical Theory. Rather than resigning to a negative telos in light of hyperreification and the realistic threat of disaster, I propose a critical and dialectical notion of (both moral and social) progress that takes inspiration from Adorno’s work. It contains and upholds the possibility of genuine betterment, of averting catastrophe, and of redemption while critically reflecting on the conditions and societal trends towards destruction (Lars Rensmann)