Adorno critiques the alienation, conformity, and loss of individuality in modern society, arguing that the conditions of late capitalism have made it impossible to lead a genuine, fulfilling life.

Historian of Philosophy Peter E. Gordon argues that the "task of Minima Moralia is to assist us in seeing the redemptive surplus that lies unrealised at the interstices of everyday experience.

[6] Adorno illustrates this in a series of short reflections and aphorisms into which the book is broken, moving from everyday experiences to disturbing insights on general tendencies of late industrial society.

Topics considered include the subversive nature of toys, the desolation of the family, the ungenuineness of being genuine, the decay of conversation, the rise of occultism, the use and abuse of semicolons, and the history of tact.

A kind of post-philosophy working against the "untrue whole" of philosophy proper, Minima Moralia holds fast to a Judeo-Marxian vision of redemption, which it calls the only valid viewpoint with which to engage a deeply troubled world.