Abstract: Marx’s concept of history refers not only to a vertical temporal process but also to the historicity immanent in the current social structure. Understanding this concept requires not only rational speculation but also sensuous apprehension. Adorno placed high importance on the role of sensibility in grasping historical truth and put forward the proposition that “history is in truth”. In his view, historical truth is the non-identical, living affinity between subject and object in history, representing the unity of opposites between universal and particular elements. Historical truth can only be revealed on the basis of spiritual experience; the general trend of history acts upon the individual in the manner of magic and taboo. The individual’s feeling of this action is, in itself, pain and fear, yet once the individual transcends his own finitude, he can sense happiness within it. Historical truth can only be revealed through genuine critical reflection, which requires us to act both as the “dramatist” of history-using theories and concepts to revise and regulate spiritual experience-and as the “actor” within it-integrating spiritual experience into theories and concepts. Only in this mimetic, dialectical cognition can we truly apprehend historical truth.

Key words: Adorno, history, subject, object, experience, mimesis