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Herbert Marcuse (; ; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-American
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
,
social critic Social criticism is a form of academic or journalistic criticism focusing on social issues in contemporary society, in particular with respect to perceived injustices and power relations in general. Social criticism of the Enlightenment The orig ...
, and political theorist, associated with the
Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
of critical theory. Born in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
, Marcuse studied at the
Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...
and then at Freiburg, where he received his PhD. He was a prominent figure in the Frankfurt-based
Institute for Social Research The Institute for Social Research (german: Institut für Sozialforschung, IfS) is a research organization for sociology and continental philosophy, best known as the institutional home of the Frankfurt School and critical theory. Currently a pa ...
– what later became known as the
Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
. He was married to Sophie Wertheim (1924–1951), Inge Neumann (1955–1973), and Erica Sherover (1976–1979). In his written works, he criticized
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
, modern technology, Soviet Communism and
popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
, arguing that they represent new forms of social control. Between 1943 and 1950, Marcuse worked in US government service for the Office of Strategic Services (predecessor of the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
) 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 preeminent theorist of the
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights ...
and the student movements of
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
, France, and the United States; some consider him "the Father of the New Left". His best-known works are ''
Eros and Civilization ''Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud'' (1955; second edition, 1966) is a book by the German philosopher and social critic Herbert Marcuse, in which the author proposes a non-repressive society, attempts a synthesis of the t ...
'' (1955) and '' One-Dimensional Man'' (1964). His
Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...
scholarship inspired many radical intellectuals and political activists in the 1960s and 1970s, both in the United States and internationally.


Biography


Early years

Herbert Marcuse was born July 19, 1898, in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
, to Carl Marcuse and Gertrud Kreslawsky. Marcuse's family was a German upper-middle-class Jewish family that was well integrated into German society. Marcuse's formal education began at Mommsen Gymnasium and continued at the Kaiserin-Augusta Gymnasium in Charlottenburg from 1911 to 1916. In 1916, he was drafted into the German Army, but only worked in horse stables in Berlin during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. He then became a member of a
Soldiers' Council A workers' council or labor council is a form of political and economic organization in which a workplace or municipality is governed by a council made up of workers or their elected delegates. The workers within each council decide on what thei ...
that participated in the aborted
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
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. 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 , thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations) , thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view , thesis1_year = 1883 , thesis2_title ...
and write a habilitation with
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centu ...
, 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 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...
's ontology of life and history, idealist theory of spirit and dialectic.


Emigration to the United States

In 1932 Marcuse stopped working with Heidegger, who later joined the Nazi Party in 1933. Marcuse understood that he would not qualify as a professor under the Nazi regime as the Nazis seized power and anti-Semitism increased. Marcuse was then hired to work in the Institute of Social Research in the Frankfurt School. The Institute deposited their endowment in Holland in anticipation of the Nazi takeover, so Marcuse never got to actually work in the Frankfurt School. Marcuse began his work with the Institute in Geneva, where a branch office was formed. While a member of the Frankfurt School (also known as the Institute of Social Research), 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. After leaving Germany for Switzerland in May 1933, 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, afterwards 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. In 1940, he became a US citizen and resided in the country until his death in 1979. 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 Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
.


World War II

During World War II, Marcuse first worked for the US
Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and othe ...
(OWI) on anti-Nazi propaganda projects. In 1943, he transferred to the
Research and Analysis Branch The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) is an intelligence agency in the United States Department of State. Its central mission is to provide all-source intelligence and analysis in support of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy. INR is ...
of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
. Directed by the Harvard historian
William L. Langer William Leonard Langer (March 16, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American historian, intelligence analyst and policy advisor. He served as chairman of the history department at Harvard University. He was on leave during World War II as h ...
, the Research and Analysis (R & A) Branch was the largest American research institution in the first half of the twentieth century. At its zenith between 1943 and 1945, it employed over twelve hundred, four hundred of whom were stationed abroad. In many respects, it was the site where post-World War II American social science was born, with protégés of some of the most esteemed American university professors, as well as numerous European intellectual émigrés, in its ranks. These men comprised the "theoretical brain trust" of the American war machine, which, according to its founder,
William J. Donovan William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan (January 1, 1883 – February 8, 1959) was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat, best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Bur ...
, would function as a "final clearinghouse" for the secret services. Although this group did not determine war strategy or tactics, it would be able to assemble, organize, analyze, and filter the immense flow of military information directed toward Washington, thanks to the unique capacity of the gathered specialists to interpret the relevant sources. In March 1943, Marcuse joined fellow Frankfurt School scholar Franz Neumann in R & A's Central European Section as senior analyst; there he rapidly established himself as "the leading analyst on Germany". After the dissolution of the OSS in 1945, Marcuse was employed by the
US Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nat ...
as head of the Central European section, becoming an intelligence analyst of Nazism. A compilation of Marcuse's reports was published in '' Secret Reports on Nazi Germany: The Frankfurt School Contribution to the War Effort'' (2013). He retired after the death of his first wife in 1951.


Post-war

Marcuse first began his teaching career as a political theorist at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, then at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
in 1952. Marcuse worked at
Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , p ...
from 1954 to 1965, then at the
University of California San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
from 1965 to 1970. It was during his time at Brandeis that he wrote his most famous work, '' One-Dimensional Man'' (1964). Marcuse was a friend and collaborator of the
political sociologist Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how ...
Barrington Moore Jr. and of the political philosopher
Robert Paul Wolff Robert Paul Wolff (born December 27, 1933) is an American political philosopher and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Wolff has written widely on topics in political philosophy such as Marxism, tolerance (against ...
, and also a friend of the
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
sociology professor
C. Wright Mills Charles Wright Mills (August 28, 1916 – March 20, 1962) was an American sociologist, and a professor of sociology at Columbia University from 1946 until his death in 1962. Mills published widely in both popular and intellectual journals, and ...
, one of the founders of the
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights ...
movement. In his "Introduction" to ''One-Dimensional Man'', Marcuse wrote, "I should like to emphasize the vital importance of the work of C. Wright Mills." In the post-war period, Marcuse rejected the theory of class struggle and the Marxist concern with labor, instead claiming, according to
Leszek Kołakowski Leszek Kołakowski (; ; 23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his three-volume history, ''Main Currents of Marxism'' (1976). ...
, that since "all questions of material existence have been solved, moral commands and prohibitions are no longer relevant." He regarded the realization of man's erotic nature as the true liberation of humanity, which inspired the utopias of Jerry Rubin and others. Marcuse's critiques of
capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
society (especially his 1955 synthesis of Marx and
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...
, ''
Eros and Civilization ''Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud'' (1955; second edition, 1966) is a book by the German philosopher and social critic Herbert Marcuse, in which the author proposes a non-repressive society, attempts a synthesis of the t ...
'', and his 1964 book '' One-Dimensional Man'') resonated with the concerns of the student movement in the 1960s. Because of his willingness to speak at student protests and his essay " Repressive Tolerance" (1965), Marcuse soon became known in the media as "Father of the New Left." Contending that the students of the sixties were not waiting for the publication of his work to act, Marcuse brushed the media's branding of him as "Father of the New Left" aside lightly, saying "It would have been better to call me not the father, but the grandfather, of the New Left." His work strongly influenced intellectual discourse on
popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
and scholarly popular culture studies. He had many speaking engagements in the US and Western Bloc in the late 1960s and 1970s. He became a close friend and inspirer of the French philosopher
André Gorz André Gorz ( né Gerhart Hirsch ; 9 February 1923 – 22 September 2007), more commonly known by his pen names Gérard Horst and Michel Bosquet , was an Austrian and French social philosopher and journalist and critic of work. He co-founde ...
. Marcuse defended the arrested
East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
dissident
Rudolf Bahro Rudolf Bahro (18 November 1935 – 5 December 1997) was a dissident from East Germany who, since his death, has been recognised as a philosopher, political figure and author. Bahro was a leader of the West German party The Greens, but became d ...
(author of ''Die Alternative: Zur Kritik des real existierenden Sozialismus'' rans., ''The Alternative in Eastern Europe'', discussing in a 1979 essay Bahro's theories of "change from within."


Marriages

Marcuse married three times. His first wife was
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...
Sophie Wertheim (1901–1951), whom he married in 1924 and had his first son Peter with in 1928. Before emigrating to New York in 1934, they resided in Freiburg, Berlin, Geneva, and Paris. They lived in Los Angeles/Santa Monica and Washington, D.C. in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1951 Sophie Wertheim passed away due to cancer. He would later marry Inge Neumann (1914–1973), the widow of his close friend Franz Neumann (1900–1954). After his second wife Inge died in 1973, Marcuse married Erica Sherover (1938–1988), a former graduate student at the University of California, in 1976.


Children

In his first marriage with Sophie Wertheim, they had one son Peter Marcuse born (1928). Peter Marcuse was a professor emeritus of
urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...
at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
located in New York. Although Marcuse didn't have any children with Inge Neumann Marcuse, he helped raise her two sons, Thomas Neumann and Michael Neumann. Thomas (now Osha) is a Berkeley-based writer, activist, lawyer, and muralist. Michael works as a philosophy professor at Trent University in Toronto. Marcuse's granddaughter is the novelist
Irene Marcuse Irene Marcuse was an American author of mystery novels. She was a finalist for the Agatha Award in 2000. She died March 8, 2021. Marcuse held a BA in Literature and Creative Writing and a Master of Social Work from Columbia University. She was ...
and his grandson, Harold Marcuse, is a professor of history at the
University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...
.


Death

On July 29, 1979, ten days after his eighty-first birthday, Marcuse died after suffering a
stroke A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...
during his trip to Germany. He had just finished speaking at the Frankfurt ''Römerberggespräche'', and was on his way to the Max Planck Institute for the Study of the Scientific-Technical World in Starnberg, on invitation from second-generation Frankfurt School theorist Jürgen Habermas. In 2003, after his ashes were rediscovered in the United States, they were buried in the Dorotheenstädtischer cemetery in Berlin.


Philosophy and views

Marcuse's concept of
repressive desublimation Repressive desublimation is a term, first coined by Frankfurt School philosopher and sociologist Herbert Marcuse in his 1964 work ''One-Dimensional Man'', that refers to the way in which, in advanced industrial society (capitalism), "the progress of ...
, which has become well-known, refers to his argument that postwar mass culture, with its profusion of sexual provocations, serves to reinforce political repression. If people are preoccupied with inauthentic sexual stimulation, their political energy will be "desublimated"; instead of acting constructively to change the world, they remain repressed and uncritical. Marcuse advanced the prewar thinking of critical theory toward a critical account of the "one-dimensional" nature of bourgeois life in Europe and America. His thinking could, therefore, also be considered an advance of the concerns of earlier liberal critics such as
David Riesman David Riesman (September 22, 1909 – May 10, 2002) was an American sociologist, educator, and best-selling commentator on American society. Career Born to a wealthy German Jewish family, he attended Harvard College, where he graduated in 193 ...
. Two aspects of Marcuse's work are of particular importance, first, his use of language more familiar from the critique of Soviet or Nazi regimes to characterize developments in the advanced industrial world; and second, his grounding of critical theory in a particular use of psychoanalytic thought.


Marcuse's early "Heideggerian Marxism"

During his years in Freiburg, Marcuse wrote a series of essays that explored the possibility of synthesizing Marxism and Heidegger's fundamental ontology, as begun in the latter's work ''Being and Time'' (1927). This early interest in Heidegger followed Marcuse's demand for "concrete philosophy," which, he declared in 1928, "concerns itself with the truth of contemporaneous human existence." These words were directed against the neo-Kantianism of the mainstream, and against both the revisionist and orthodox Marxist alternatives, in which the subjectivity of the individual played little role. Though Marcuse quickly distanced himself from Heidegger following Heidegger's endorsement of Nazism, thinkers such as Jürgen Habermas have suggested that an understanding of Marcuse's later thinking demands an appreciation of his early Heideggerian influence.


Marcuse and Capitalism

Marcuse's analysis of capitalism derives partially from one of Karl Marx's main concepts: Objectification, which under capitalism becomes Alienation. Marx believed that capitalism was exploiting humans; that by producing objects of a certain character, laborers became alienated and this ultimately dehumanized them into functional objects themselves. Marcuse took this belief and expanded it. He argued that capitalism and industrialization pushed laborers so hard that they began to see themselves as extensions of the objects they were producing. At the beginning of ''One-Dimensional Man'' Marcuse writes, "The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment," meaning that under capitalism (in consumer society), humans become extensions of the commodities that they buy, thus making commodities extensions of people's minds and bodies. Affluent mass technological societies, he argues, are controlled and manipulated. In societies based upon mass production and mass distribution, the individual worker has become merely a consumer of its commodities and entire commodified way of life. Modern capitalism has created false needs and false consciousness geared to the consumption of commodities: it locks one-dimensional man into the one-dimensional society which produced the need for people to recognize themselves in their commodities. The very mechanism that ties the individual to his society has changed, and social control is anchored in the new needs that it has produced. Most important of all, the pressure of consumerism has led to the total integration of the working class into the
capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...
system. Its political parties and trade unions have become thoroughly bureaucratized and the power of negative thinking or critical reflection has rapidly declined. The working class is no longer a potentially subversive force capable of bringing about revolutionary change. Professor Marcuse evolved a theory over the years that stated modern technology is repressive naturally. He believed that in both capitalist and communist societies, workers did not question the manner in which they lived due to the mechanism of repression of technological advances. The use of technology allowed people to not be aware of what is occurring around them such as the fact that they might soon be out of their jobs because these technologies are committing their same jobs quicker and cheaper. He claimed the modern-day workers were not as rebellious as before during the Karl Marx era (19th century). They just freely conformed to the system they were under for the sake of satisfying their needs and survival. Since they had conformed, the revolution that Marcuse felt was necessary by the people never happened. As a result, rather than looking to the workers as the revolutionary vanguard, Marcuse put his faith in an alliance between radical intellectuals and those groups not yet integrated into one-dimensional society, the socially marginalized, the substratum of the outcasts and outsiders, the exploited and persecuted of other ethnicities and other colors, the unemployed and the unemployable. These were the people whose standards of living demanded the ending of intolerable conditions and institutions and whose resistance to one-dimensional society would not be diverted by the system. Their opposition was revolutionary even if their consciousness was not.


The New Left and radical politics

Many radical scholars and activists were influenced by Marcuse, such as Norman O. Brown, Angela Davis, Charles J. Moore, Abbie Hoffman, Rudi Dutschke, and Robert M. Young (see the List of Scholars and Activists link below). Among those who critiqued him from the left were Marxist-humanist Raya Dunayevskaya, fellow German emigre Paul Mattick, both of whom subjected ''One-Dimensional Man'' to a Marxist critique, and
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...
, who knew and liked Marcuse "but thought very little of his work." Marcuse's 1965 essay " Repressive Tolerance", in which he claimed capitalist democracies can have
totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...
aspects, has been criticized by conservatives. Marcuse argues that genuine tolerance does not permit support for "repression", since doing so ensures that marginalized voices will remain unheard. He characterizes tolerance of repressive speech as "inauthentic". Instead, he advocates a form of tolerance that is intolerant of repressive (namely right-wing) political movements: Marcuse later expressed his radical ideas through three pieces of writing. He wrote '' An Essay on Liberation'' in 1969, in which he celebrated liberation movements such as those in
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...
, which inspired many radicals. In 1972 he wrote '' Counterrevolution and Revolt'', which argues that the hopes of the 1960s were facing a counterrevolution from the right. After Brandeis denied the renewal of his teaching contract in 1965, Marcuse taught at the
University of California San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
. In 1968, California Governor Ronald Reagan and other conservatives objected to his reappointment, but the university decided to let his contract run until 1970. He devoted the rest of his life to teaching, writing and giving lectures around the world. His efforts brought him attention from the media, which claimed that he openly advocated violence, although he often clarified that only "violence of defense" could be appropriate, not "violence of aggression". He continued to promote Marxian theory, with some of his students helping to spread his ideas. He published his final work '' The Aesthetic Dimension'' in 1979 on the role of art in the process of what he termed "emancipation" from bourgeois society.


Marcuse and Feminism

Marcuse felt that societal reform may be found among the outcast of society, thus he supported movements such as the Feminist movement. Marcuse was particularly concerned with Feminism near the end of his life, for reasons he explained in a public lecture ''Marxism and Feminism'' in 1974. Many themes and ambitions from Marcuse's work found embodiment in socialist feminism, especially ideas developed in ''Eros and Civilization''. It involved changes not only in the structural power relations of society, but in the instinctual drives of individual human beings. Although he regarded women's participation in the labor force as positive, and a necessary condition for women's liberation, Marcuse did not consider it sufficient for true freedom. He hoped for a shift in moral values away from aggressive and masculine qualities towards feminine ones. Jessica Benjamin and Nancy Chodorow believed that Marcuse's reliance on Freud's drive theory as the source of the desire for societal change is inadequate for both philosophers since he fails to account for the individual's intersubjective growth.
Nina Power Nina Power is an English writer and philosopher. She is a senior editor of and columnist for the online magazine '' Compact''. Power received her PhD in philosophy from Middlesex University on the topic of humanism and antihumanism in post ...
defends Marcuse against the charge of
gender essentialism Gender essentialism is a theory that is used to examine the attribution of distinct, fixed, intrinsic qualities to women and men. In this theory, based in essentialism, there are certain universal, innate, biologically or psychologically based feat ...
. Margaret Cerullo was wary of the eroticization of female intellect.


Criticism

Leszek Kołakowski Leszek Kołakowski (; ; 23 October 1927 – 17 July 2009) was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analyses of Marxist thought, especially his three-volume history, ''Main Currents of Marxism'' (1976). ...
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 hohave realized in themselves the unity of ''Logos'' and Eros, and thrown off the vexatious authority of logic, mathematics, and the empirical sciences." The philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre asserted that Marcuse falsely assumed consumers were completely passive, uncritically responding to corporate advertising. 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. For example, Marcuse was not an orthodox Marxist. 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 The Right Hegelians (german: Rechtshegelianer), Old Hegelians (''Althegelianer''), or the Hegelian Right (''die Hegelsche Rechte''), were those followers of German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in the early 19th century who took his phi ...
, whom Marx attacked. Hence, MacIntyre proposed that Marcuse be regarded as "a pre-Marxist thinker". According to MacIntyre, Marcuse's assumptions about advanced industrial society were wrong in whole and in part. "Marcuse," concluded MacIntyre, "invokes the great names of freedom and reason while betraying their substance at every important point."


Legacy

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. 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. 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. 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." Marcuse's concept of repressive tolerance attracted renewed attention following the 9/11 attacks. Repressive tolerance is also relevant to 21st century campus protests and the
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...
movement. A fictional representation of Herbert Marcuse appears in the Coen brothers film ''
Hail, Caesar! ''Hail, Caesar!'' is a 2016 period mystery musical black comedy film written, produced, edited and directed by the brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. An American-British-Japanese co-production, the film stars Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehr ...
'' played by John Bluthal. While working as a graduate fellow under Marcuse, Lowell Bergman (who three decades later was portrayed by
Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...
in The Insider (film)) served as a “de facto bodyguard” for the philosopher during a period when Marcuse was regularly receiving threats of physical violence.


Famous quotes

* "Art cannot change the world, but it can contribute to changing the consciousness and drives of the men and women who could change the world." * "The so-called consumer society and the politics of corporate capitalism have created a second nature of man which ties him libidinally and aggressively to the commodity form. The need for possessing, consuming, handling and constantly renewing the gadgets, devices, instruments, engines, offered to and imposed upon the people, for using these wares even at the danger of one's own destruction, has become a “biological” need." * "One-dimensional thought is systematically promoted by the makers of politics and their purveyors of mass information. Their universe of discourse is populated by self-validating hypotheses which, incessantly and monopolistically repeated, become hypnotic definitions of dictations." * “The spontaneous reproduction of superimposed needs by the individual does not establish autonomy; it only testifies to the efficacy of the control.” * “Under the rule of a repressive whole, liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination.”


Bibliography

;Books * ''Hegel's Ontology and the Theory of Historicity'' (1932), originally written in German, in English 1987. * ''Studie über Autorität und Familie'' (1936) in German, republished 1987, 2005. Marcuse wrote just over 100 pages in this 900-page study. * '' Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory'' (1941) * '' Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud'' (1955) * '' Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis'' (1958) * '' One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society'' (1964) * ''
A Critique of Pure Tolerance ''A Critique of Pure Tolerance'' is a 1965 book by the philosopher Robert Paul Wolff, the sociologist Barrington Moore Jr., and the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, in which the authors discuss the political role of tolerance. Summary The book inc ...
'' (1965) Essay "Repressive Tolerance," with additional essays by Robert Paul Wolff and Barrington Moore Jr. * ''Negations: Essays in Critical Theory'' (1968) * '' An Essay on Liberation'' (1969) * ''Five Lectures'' (1969) * '' Counterrevolution and Revolt'' (1972) * '' The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics'' (1978) ;Essays * Neue Quellen zur Grundlegung des Historischen Materialismus (1932) * Repressive Tolerance (1965) * Liberation (1969) * On the Problem of the Dialectic (1976) * Protosocialism and Late Capitalism: Toward a Theoretical Synthesis Based on Bahro's Analysis (1980)


Professionals Marcuse Influenced

* Angela Davis * Jürgen Habermas * Douglas Kellner * Abbie Hoffman * Norman O. Brown * Lowell Bergman


See also

* '' After Marcuse'' * Freudo-Marxism *
Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
*
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
*
Socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...
* German literature * Critical theory *
Capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...


References


Further reading


Herbert Marcuse

* John Abromeit and W. Mark Cobb, eds. (2004), ''Herbert Marcuse: A Critical Reader'', New York, London: Routledge. * Andrew Feenberg and William Leiss (2007), ''The Essential Marcuse: Selected Writings of Philosopher and Social Critic Herbert Marcuse'', Boston: Beacon Press. * ''Technology, War and Fascism. Collected papers of Herbert Marcuse, volume 1'' (London: Routledge 1998)


Criticism and analysis

* C. Fred Alford (1985), ''Science and Revenge of Nature: Marcuse and Habermas'', Gainesville: University of Florida Press. * Harold Bleich (1977), ''The Philosophy of Herbert Marcuse'', Washington: University Press of America. * Paul Breines (1970), ''Critical Interruptions: New Left Perspectives on Herbert Marcuse'', New York: Herder and Herder. * Douglas Kellner (1984), ''Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism''. London: Macmillan. . * Paul Mattick (1972), ''Critique of Marcuse: One-dimensional man in class society'' Merlin Press * Alain Martineau (1986). Herbert Marcuse's Utopia, Harvest House, Montreal. * . * . * Eliseo Vivas (1971), ''Contra Marcuse'', Arlington House, New Rochelle. *Andrew T. Lamas, Todd Wolfson, and Peter N. Funke, eds (2017),
The Great Refusal: Herbert Marcuse and Contemporary Social Movements
'. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2017. * Kurt H. Wolff and Barrington Moore, Jr., eds (1967), ''The Critical Spirit. Essays in honor of Herbert Marcuse''. Beacon Press, Boston. * J. Michael Tilley (2011). "Herbert Marcuse: Social Critique, Haecker and Kierkegaardian Individualism" in ''Kierkegaard's Influence on Social-Political Thought'' edited by Jon Stewart.


General

* Anthony Elliott and Larry Ray (2003), Key Contemporary Social Theorists. *
Charles Lemert Charles Lemert (born 1937) is an American born social theorist and sociologist. He has written extensively on social theory, globalization and culture. He has contributed to many key debates in social thought, authoring dozens of books including h ...
(2010), Social Theory: the Multicultural and Classic Readings. * Douglas Mann (2008), A Survey of Modern Social Theory. * Noel Parker and Stuart Sim (1997), A-Z Guide to Modern Social and Political Theorist *"Herbert Marcuse , American philosopher". ''Encyclopedia Britannica''. Retrieved 2021-10-23


External links


Comprehensive 'Official' Herbert Marcuse Website
by one of Marcuse's grandsons, with full bibliographies of primary and secondary works, and full texts of many important works
International Herbert Marcuse Society website


at the
Marxists Internet Archive Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich En ...

Herbert Marcuse Archive
by Herbert Marcuse Association * from worldsocialism.org

(detailed biography and essays, by Douglas Kellner). * Douglas Kellner
"Herbert Marcuse"
* Bernard Stiegler
"Spirit, Capitalism, and Superego"

"Herbert Marcuse Biography Indonesian"
at aprillins.com * Azurmendi, J. 1969
Pentsalaria eta eragina
'' Jakin'', 35: 3–16.
Goodbye Comrade M
obituary of Marcuse by
David Widgery David Widgery (27 April 1947 – 26 October 1992) was a British Marxist writer, journalist, polemicist, physician, and activist. Biography Widgery was born in Barnet and grew up in Maidenhead, Berkshire. He contracted polio as a child and ...
, ''Socialist Review'' (September 1979).
Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Herbert Marcuse {{DEFAULTSORT:Marcuse, Herbert 1898 births 1979 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century German philosophers 20th-century German writers American anti-capitalists American anti-fascists American environmentalists American feminists American male non-fiction writers American Marxists American sociologists Anti-consumerists Anti-Stalinist left Brandeis University faculty Burials at the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery Columbia University faculty Communication scholars Critics of work and the work ethic Ecofeminists Frankfurt School German anti-capitalists German anti-fascists German communists German environmentalists German feminists German male writers German Marxists German socialists German sociologists Jewish American social scientists Jewish anti-fascists Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Jewish philosophers Jewish sociologists Left-libertarians Libertarian socialists Male feminists Marxist humanists Marxist theorists New Left People from the Province of Brandenburg People of the Office of Strategic Services People of the United States Office of War Information Philosophers of technology Revolution theorists Social critics University of California, San Diego faculty University of Freiburg alumni Writers from Berlin Utopian studies scholars