Abstract

The present study examines Adorno’s critique of Husserl and Heidegger by asking whether one can find a systematic equivalent for Adorno’s notion of a ,spiritual experience‘ in the works of the two phenomenological thinkers. This question is answered affirmatively. The first part summarizes Adorno’s critique of Husserl and Heidegger; the second analyzes the notion of ,spiritual experience‘ in Adorno’s negative dialectics; the third part explains in which sense one can speak of a ,spiritual experience‘ in Husserl’s and Heidegger’s phenomenology; the final part describes the main differences of a ,spiritual experience‘ in negative dialectics and in phenomenology, i. e. on the one hand the originally epistemological approach of phenomenology and the originally practical approach of negative dialectics and on the other hand the attitude with regards towards metaphysics.