In the work of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, "constellates" refers to a specific method of critical analysis where disparate elements, ideas, or historical moments are brought together in a way that illuminates hidden connections and meanings.
For Benjamin, constellation is a key concept in his philosophy of history and his approach to dialectical images. Rather than viewing history as a linear progression, he suggests that past and present moments can be arranged in constellations that suddenly reveal new insights. In his "Arcades Project" and essays like "Theses on the Philosophy of History," Benjamin argues that when we juxtapose seemingly unrelated historical fragments, they can "flash up" with meaning - creating what he calls a "dialectical image" that breaks through conventional historical understanding.
Adorno, heavily influenced by Benjamin, uses constellation as a method in his negative dialectics. For Adorno, concepts and objects resist being fully captured by systematic thought. Instead of forcing everything into a rigid system, he advocates for a constellational approach where different concepts, experiences, and critical perspectives are arranged around an object or problem without claiming to exhaust its meaning. This allows for what he calls "non-identity" - the recognition that reality always exceeds our conceptual grasp of it.
Both thinkers see constellation as opposed to systematic thinking that tries to reduce everything to a single principle or totality. Instead, it's a way of thinking that preserves contradictions and tensions, allowing for new insights to emerge from the arrangement of fragments rather than from deductive reasoning. The constellation doesn't resolve into a synthesis but maintains a productive tension that keeps thought open and critical.
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