The article presents the influence of Th. W. Adorno's aesthetic theory on contemporary philosophy or, more specifically, on the work of the post-structuralist J. F. Lyotard. It focuses on a novel interpretation of four concepts that are fundamental to both authors: critique, adherence to a radical ethics, the choice of the pantheon of artists preferred by each, and the defense of both, against systematic and total aesthetics, of a micrological one.