Critique of Common Nonsense: First Steps Towards a Critical Theory of Common Sense

The concept of common sense plays only a marginal role in Frankfurt School critical theory, despite its egalitarian and emancipatory promise. Focusing on Adorno, this article argues that his scattered reflections reveal both a negative, conformist dimension of common sense and a fragile, yet real, emancipatory potential. Through analyses of ‘Opinion Delusion Society’ and Minima Moralia, the article reconstructs Adorno’s critique of common sense as a socially conditioned form of ‘common nonsense’ that substitutes conformity and power for truth, blurring the line between opinion and knowledge. It then turns to Kant’s account of sensus communis in §40 of the Critique of the Power of Judgment to clarify how a procedural, reflective, and universalizing capacity might resist the pathologies Adorno identifies. By bringing Kant’s maxims of thinking into dialogue with Adorno’s social critique, the article outlines a procedural, non-foundational model of common sense grounded in communicative openness, mutual recognition, and the capacity to disagree without coercion. While not offering a full critical theory of common sense, it proposes the conceptual groundwork for such a project – an urgent task in light of contemporary political appeals to common sense.