---
layout: post
status: publish
published: true
title: ! 'Adorno terminology: καιρος'

wordpress_id: 1768
wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/2012/01/07/adorno-terminology-%ce%ba%ce%b1%ce%b9%cf%81%ce%bf%cf%82/
date: !binary |-
  MjAxMi0wMS0wNyAxNjoyODo1OCArMDEwMA==
date_gmt: !binary |-
  MjAxMi0wMS0wNyAxNjoyODo1OCArMDEwMA==
categories:
- Academia
- Philosophy
- Theodor Adorno
tags:
- Adorno
- definition
- greek
comments: []
---
<p>"His work is the extrapolation of a negative καιρος" (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004. p. 33.) -- in reference to Beckett</p>
<p>With thanks to Yorgos Maragos.</p>
<p>καιρος = time/period</p>
<p>Example from Aeschines:</p>
<p>πόθεν οὖν ἐπὶ τὴν μεταβολὴν ἦλθε τῶν πραγμάτων, οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ δεύτερος καιρός,<br />
"Now how it was that he came to reverse his policies （for this is the second period)" (<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0002:speech=3:section=79">http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0002:speech=3:section=79</a>)</p>
<p>Further instances in Adorno:</p>
<p>"Accordingly, contrary to current aesthetic views, whe whole in truth exists only for the sake of its parts -- that is, its καιρος the instant -- and not the reverse; what works in opposition to mimesis ultimately seeks to serve it." (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004. p. 246.)</p>
<p>"This consciousness is no vague timeliness, no καιρος that would justify the course of a world history, that is not the development of truth." (Adorno, Theodor W. Aesthetic Theory. Edited by Gretel Adorno and Rolf Tiedemann. Translated by Robert Hullot-Kentor. London: Continuum, 2004. p. 251.)</p>
<p><i>Featured image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/peroshenka/">Пероша</a> under a CC-BY-NC license.</i></p>