Two Negative Dialetics

Paulo Arantes and an UnAdorned Dialectic

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present the concept of negative dialectic as a self-reflection about dialectics that aims to bring back Marx’s question about praxis in contexts where the radical transformation of the world does not seem possible. But if a negative dialectic, such as Theodor Adorno's, keeps the emancipatory promises of the Western tradition of the center of capitalism, something different occurs in a negative dialectic, such as Paulo Arantes, which starts from a peripheral country's point of view in the global capitalist system. From this point of view, the New is no longer immanent to the system, but can only come from outside. However, to say what this “outside” is still depends on a negative dialectic.