Herbert Marcuse
Herbert Marcuse (/mɑːrˈkuːzə/; German: [maʁˈkuːzə]; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German–American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University of Berlin and then at Freiburg, where he received his Ph.D.[3] He was a prominent figure in the Frankfurt-based Institute for Social Research, which later became known as the Frankfurt School. In his written works, he criticized capitalism, modern technology, Soviet Communism, and popular culture, arguing that they represent new forms of social control.[4]
"Marcuse" redirects here. For other uses, see Marcuse (disambiguation).
Herbert Marcuse
July 19, 1898
July 29, 1979 (aged 81)
- German
- American
- Eros and Civilization (1955)
- One-Dimensional Man (1964)
-
Sophie Wertheim(m. 1924; died 1951)
-
Inge Neumann(m. 1955; died 1973)
-
Erica Sherover(m. 1976)
Between 1943 and 1950, Marcuse worked in U.S. government service for the Office of Strategic Services (predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency) where he criticized the ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the book Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis (1958). In the 1960s and the 1970s, he became known as the pre-eminent theorist of the New Left and the student movements of West Germany, France, and the United States; some consider him "the Father of the New Left".[5]
His best-known works are Eros and Civilization (1955) and One-Dimensional Man (1964). His Marxist scholarship inspired many radical intellectuals and political activists in the 1960s and 1970s, both in the United States and internationally.
Biography[edit]
Early years[edit]
Herbert Marcuse was born July 19, 1898, in Berlin, to Carl Marcuse and Gertrud Kreslawsky. Marcuse's family was a German upper-middle-class Jewish family that was well integrated into German society.[6] Marcuse moved from Berlin to the suburb of Charlottenburg, the center of West Berlin. Marcuse's formal education began at Mommsen Gymnasium and continued at the Kaiserin-Augusta Gymnasium in Charlottenburg from 1911 to 1916.[6] In 1916, he was drafted into the German Army, but only worked in horse stables in Berlin during World War I. He would sit out his entire military service in Germany. While in Berlin, he managed to secure permission to attend lectures at the university of Berlin while still on active duty.[3] He then became a member of a Soldiers' Council that participated in the abortive socialist Spartacist uprising.
In 1919 he attended Humboldt University in Berlin, taking classes for four semesters. In 1920 he transferred to the University of Freiburg to concentrate on German literature, philosophy, politics, and economics.[6] He completed his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Freiburg in 1922 on the German Künstlerroman, after which he moved back to Berlin, where he worked in publishing. Two years later he married Sophie Wertheim, a mathematician.
He returned to Freiburg in 1928 to study with Edmund Husserl and write a habilitation with Martin Heidegger, which was published in 1932 as Hegel's Ontology and the Theory of Historicity (Hegels Ontologie und die Theorie der Geschichtlichkeit). This study was written in the context of the Hegel Renaissance that was taking place in Europe with an emphasis on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's ontology of life and history, idealist theory of spirit and dialectic.[7]
Institute for Social Research[edit]
In 1932 Marcuse stopped working with Heidegger, who joined the Nazi Party in 1933. Marcuse understood that he would not qualify as a professor under the Nazi regime.[6] Marcuse was then hired to work for the Institute of Social Research in Frankfurt. The Institute deposited their endowment in Holland in anticipation of the Nazi takeover, so Marcuse never actually worked in the school there.[6] Instead, he began his work with the Institute in Geneva, where a branch office was formed after leaving Nazi Germany in May 1933.[6] While a member of the Frankfurt School, Marcuse developed a model for critical social theory, created a theory of the new stage of state and monopoly capitalism, described the relationships between philosophy, social theory, and cultural criticism, and provided an analysis and critique of German "National Socialism". Marcuse worked closely with critical theorists while at the Institute.[7]
Emigration to the United States[edit]
Marcuse emigrated to the United States in June 1934. Marcuse served at the Institute's Columbia University branch from 1934 through 1942. He traveled to Washington, D.C., in 1942, to work for the Office of War Information, and afterward the Office of Strategic Services. Marcuse then went on to teach at Brandeis University and the University of California, San Diego later in his career.[6] In 1940, he became a US citizen and resided in the country until his death in 1979.[6] Although he never returned to Germany to live, he remained one of the major theorists associated with the Frankfurt School, along with Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno (among others). In 1940 he published Reason and Revolution, a dialectical work studying G. W. F. Hegel and Karl Marx.
Criticism[edit]
Leszek Kołakowski described Marcuse's views as essentially anti-Marxist, in that they ignored Marx's critique of Hegel and discarded the historical theory of class struggle entirely in favor of an inverted Freudian reading of human history where all social rules could and should be discarded to create a "New World of Happiness." Kołakowski concluded that Marcuse's ideal society "is to be ruled despotically by an enlightened group [who] have realized in themselves the unity of Logos and Eros, and thrown off the vexatious authority of logic, mathematics, and the empirical sciences."[12]
The philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre asserted that Marcuse falsely assumed consumers were completely passive, uncritically responding to corporate advertising.[28] MacIntyre frankly opposed Marcuse. "It will be my crucial contention in this book," MacIntyre stated, "that almost all of Marcuse's key positions are false.[38] For example, Marcuse was not an orthodox Marxist.[39] Like many of the Frankfurt School, Marcuse wrote of "critical theory" not of "Marxism" and MacIntyre notes a similarity in this to the Right Hegelians, whom Marx attacked.[40] Hence, MacIntyre proposed that Marcuse be regarded as "a pre-Marxist thinker".[41] According to MacIntyre, Marcuse's assumptions about advanced industrial society were wrong in whole and in part.[42] "Marcuse," concluded MacIntyre, "invokes the great names of freedom and reason while betraying their substance at every important point."[43]
Legacy[edit]
Herbert Marcuse appealed to students of the New Left through his emphasis on the power of critical thought and his vision of total human emancipation and a non-repressive civilization. He supported students he felt were subject to the pressures of a commodifying system, and has been regarded as an inspirational intellectual leader.[28] He is also considered among the most influential of the Frankfurt School critical theorists on American culture, due to his studies on student and counter-cultural movements on the 1960s.[44] The legacy of the 1960s, of which Marcuse was a vital part, lives on, and the great refusal is still practiced by oppositional groups and individuals.[28]
Eros and Civilization is one of Marcuses most notable works and his insensitivity to human relatedness portrayed in this project is considered the key failure of this work. His insights of psychoanalytic object relations theory in this project have not been wedded or reinterpreted, without abandoning its core principles.[45]
Marcuse's thought remains influential in the 21st century. In the introduction to an issue of New Political Science dedicated to Marcuse, Robert Kirsch and Sarah Surak described his influence as, "alive and well, vibrant across multiple fields of inquiry across many areas of social relations."[46] Marcuse's concept of repressive tolerance attracted renewed attention following the 9/11 attacks.[47] Repressive tolerance is also relevant to 21st century campus protests and the Black Lives Matter movement.[48]
Marcuse is not widely remembered outside of contexts where critical theory is taught or referenced.[49] This theory, rooted in Marxist philosophy, remains as one of the main components of Marcuse's influence.