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A conception of the critical gesture that starts from the fact of naked suffering characterizes the texts of Adorno, Horkheimer, and other authors close to critical theory. The “micrological gaze,” as I call this idea, implies that close attention is paid to detail as such, to the particular as opposed to the general. This gaze places the concern to express suffering at the foundation of these theories, the risk of pity being preferred to that of indifference. The current attempt by Axel Honneth to construct a theory of society based on the experience of social scorn could open a path to putting together the elements of a contemporary micrology.