Chapter 1 - Illusion or Semblance

Summary

Chapter 1 discusses the structure of ideology in capitalism. According to Adorno, ideology is a “socially necessary illusion” that is embodied in the legal, social, and political institutions constitutive of capitalism. Using Hegel’s category of “semblance” (Schein) in the logic of essence, I argue that although individuals take themselves to be free and equal in capitalism, such moral intuitions are in fact grounded on, and therefore conceal, the deeper relation of domination. Finally, I discuss Marx’s account of the objectivity of the ideology of equality and freedom in capitalism. In contrast to slave or feudal societies, where there was no claim to equality and freedom, domination by capital is mediated by the institution of wage-labor, which requires equality and freedom.