Adorno

From Philosophy Lecturer to Advanced Student 193

wished to examine such matters as his conception of ‘phenomenological
attitude’ and ‘intuitions of essence’ (Wesensschau), as well as inconsist-
encies in his conception of ontology.^26
This renewed study of Husserl was to be undertaken from the vantage
point of dialectical and materialist philosophy, rather than in the con-
text of transcendental idealism. Adorno approached the task with great
seriousness, and after initial reservations which he reported to Benjamin

• not without coquettishness – he became increasingly enthusiastic about
  the seemingly arid epistemological subject. He spoke to Horkheimer of
  the ‘exciting task of striking the sparks of historical concreteness at the
  very point where it appears at its most desiccated.’^27 And he wrote to
  Krenek in Vienna expressing his satisfaction at his success in establishing
  himself in Oxford:

Merton College, the oldest and one of the most exclusive here in

Oxford, has accepted me as member and advanced student, and

I am now living here in indescribable peace and quiet and with very

pleasant external working conditions. As to questions of substance,

there are difficulties since it is quite impossible to convey my real

philosophical interests to the English, and I have to reduce my

work to a childish level in order to make it comprehensible at all –

which results in a split between the academic and the authentic

sphere for which I really feel too old. But I must simply accept

things as they are and be happy to be able to work in peace.^28

What Adorno says in these letters at the beginning of his first term in
Oxford is not something he would have said later on, at least not in this
disparaging manner, once he had come to know more about philosophy
at Oxford and Cambridge. While he was still in Frankfurt he had made
a study of English empiricism and also of the Bradley school. He now
took the opportunity created by his stay in Oxford to become better
acquainted with modern analytical philosophy, in particular that of G. E.
Moore, as well as the history of logic. It is not clear how deep his studies
went. He did not come into contact with Wittgenstein, who was a fellow
of Trinity College, Cambridge. One link with Anglo-Saxon philosophy
was the hostility of both materialist philosophy and analytical philosophy
to absolute idealism. Adorno did not retreat into his own philosophical
ghetto; on the contrary, he followed where his curiosity led. He attended
the talks given at the different philosophy societies – the Jowett Society
and the Philosophical Society – and took an active part in the dis-
cussions.^29 As early as October 1934 he joined the Oxford University
Musical Society, whose vice-president was Redvers Opie, and attended
the concerts organized by the society which took place in the Holywell
Music Rooms. There he heard chamber concerts with works by Bach,
Mozart, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, and even a concert of music for guitar
given by Andrés Segovia. In the first half of 1935, as a formal member