The aim of this paper is to understand the meaning of dialectical contradiction. I shall argue that dialectics is mainly a linguistic phenomenon that shows the coimplication of concepts. Through a deep analysis of the notions of “contradiction” and “negation”, which lie behind Hegel’s and Adorno’s work, I shall explain the logical structure of the contradiction which Hegel and Adorno work with (§ 1); I shall show why Hegel and Adorno give two radically different interpretations of contradiction (§ 2 and § 3); why Adorno’s idea of dialectics, as showing the presence of a transcendent “nonidentical”, is not sustainable (§ 4); and, finally, that Adorno’s conception of a purely negative dialectics requires a linguistic interpretation (§ 5).
