Philosophical and Conceptual Dimensions of Genocide: A Comparative Study of Theodor Adorno and Abdias Nascimento.

This research seeks to evaluate Critical Theory's contemporary relevance and global applicability by comparing the philosophical and conceptual dimensions of genocide in Theodor W. Adorno's reflections on Auschwitz and Abdias Nascimento’s analysis of the Black genocide in Brazil during the 20th century. Genocide is a central theme that pervades the work of the first generation of Critical Theory scholars, many of whom were of Jewish descent and had directly experienced the consequences of Nazi persecution. Adorno, in particular, articulated a new categorical imperative for humanity: to ensure that Auschwitz never happens again. By the 1960s, although concentration camps had been dismantled and Nazi symbols and propaganda were legally banned, fascism continued to reproduce itself socially — not only in explicit forms but also as a mode of thought, a form of subjectivity, and a way of relating to the world and others.

In this sense, it is possible to notice the philosophical dimensions of genocide and compare Adorno’s perspective with that of Brazilian sociologist Abdias Nascimento. In his study Brazil, Mixture or Massacre? Essays in the Genocide of a Black People (1989), Nascimento emphasizes both the explicit and the more abstract or implicit social forms of genocide. His analysis goes beyond mass murder to include the systematic whitening of the population. According to Nascimento, the genocide of Black Brazilians did not occur through an overt extermination policy tied to a single event, but rather through a deliberate and systematic process deeply rooted in social racism, along with a policy aimed at whitening the population and eliminating the Black race from the nation.

Amid ongoing public debates about the proper application of the term "genocide," this work seeks to shed light on the concept from a sociological and philosophical standpoint and contribute to the social struggle against it.