---
layout: post
status: publish
published: true
title: ! 'Adorno terminology: εποχη [and lengthy textual note]'

wordpress_id: 1739
wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/2012/01/10/adorno-terminology-%ce%b5%cf%80%ce%bf%cf%87%ce%b7-misprint-of-%ce%b1%cf%80%ce%bf%cf%87%ce%ae/
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categories:
- Academia
- Philosophy
- Theodor Adorno
tags:
- Adorno
- definition
- greek
comments:
- id: 6593
  author: Adam Roberts
  author_email: profadamroberts@gmail.com
  author_url: ''
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  content: ! '<i>Liddell and Scott</i> (apologies if you''ve checked already) say:
    ''1: a check, a cessation ... 2: a suspension of judgment (technical term of the
    sceptical philosophers) ... 3: a stoppage, pause.''  A secondary meaning is listed,
    via Ptolemy, ''the epoch of a star, ie the point at which it seems to halt after
    reaching its highest'' and hence ''an historical epoch.'''
- id: 6595
  author: Martin Paul Eve
  author_email: martin@martineve.com
  author_url: https://www.martineve.com
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  content: Hi Adam, thanks for this; shortly after writing I was introduced to the
    delights of LSJ in both its electronic, and online, formats!
---
<p>"By its εποχη from the empirical world, new art ceases to be fantastic." (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004. p. 25.)</p>
<p>εποχη in contemporary Greek = age/epoch</p>
<p>This seems problematic. Neither "by its age" nor "by its epoch" make sense and what seems to be implied is that new art has totally renounced any connection to the empirical and so is not fantastic because it is not attempting to portray the un-empirical as if it were empirical. In this case, αποχή (abstinence) would be the correct term. My thanks to Yorgos Maragos for this suggestion.</p>
<p>In the course of following this up, I had assumed some fault on Adorno's part. The original German for this passage reads: "Durch εποχη von der empirischen Welt hört die neue Kunst auf, phantastisch zu sein" thus the error was not in translation. (Adorno, Theodor W. Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. 7. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970. p. 36.)</p>
<p>I then looked at the prior translation and found the following:</p>
<p>"Modern art ceases to be fantastic by virtue of its époché towards the empirical world." (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by C. Lenhardt. London: Routledge, 1984. p. 28.)</p>
<p>This led to a moment of wincing for me. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epoch%C3%A9">Epoché</a> would be far better translated as "suspension". Ancient Greek. Philosophical terms. Not the same as contemporary Greek.</p>
<p><i>Featured image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/peroshenka/">Пероша</a> under a CC-BY-NC license.</i></p>