Negative dialectics rejects the idea of a final synthesis or reconciliation, instead emphasizing the importance of maintaining the tension between contradictory elements and resisting the temptation to subsume particulars under abstract, totalizing concepts.

Central to Adorno's argument is his reflection on the Holocaust and the systematic extermination of the Jews at Auschwitz, which he sees as a catastrophic failure of Enlightenment rationality and a profound challenge to the very foundations of philosophical thought.

[1][2] He argues that the experience of Auschwitz demands a fundamental rethinking of the Western philosophical tradition and a new form of critical theory that can grapple with the ethical and metaphysical challenges posed by the Holocaust, writing that a "new categorical imperative has been imposed by Hitler upon unfree mankind: to arrange their thoughts and actions so that Auschwitz will not repeat itself, so that nothing similar will happen.

Adorno argues that the systematic extermination of the Jews cannot be adequately comprehended or represented within the frameworks of traditional philosophy, and his "negative dialectics" is an attempt to develop a mode of thinking that can respond to the ethical and metaphysical challenges posed by the Holocaust.

In addition, the memoirs of camp survivors such as Jean Amery and Tadeusz Borowski can be seen as anticipating or otherwise influencing Adorno's thought in Negative Dialectics.

[15] Adorno's critique of systemic thinking can explain the taboo of formulating precise explanations for why the Holocaust happened and what specific outcomes the Final Solution intended to achieve.