Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse , born the July 19th 1898 with Berlin, dead the July 29th 1979 with Starnberg (Bavaria) was a Philosophe, Sociologue, Marxiste, states-uniens of German origin. Member of the School of Frankfurt with Theodore Adorno and max Horkheimer.

Career

It was the first wire of an Jewish family. After the baccalaureat, it is called up for the military service, in the Reichswehr. After the war of 1914-18, it militates within the movement Spartakiste, adheres to the social democrat party but however leaves it after the assassination of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in 1919. He studies with Berlin and in Freiburg, the Germanistik like disciplines principal, the Philosophie and the political economy like secondary matters. With Freiburg, he becomes the assistant of Martin Heidegger and writes a thesis on Hegel. But it enters quickly in dissension with Heidegger and share for Frankfurt.

It is into 1932 that Marcuse between for the first time in contact with the Research institute social of Frankfurt. As of the takeover by the Nazi S in 1933, he emigrates with his family, initially in Suisse then with the the United States of America, after a short passage to Paris. He is engaged by the Research institute social which already settled with New York. Because of the bad financial position of the Institute, Marcuse must accept off a position with the Office Strategic Services (OSS) or he works on a program of denazification.

Since 1951, he teaches in various American universities. In 1964, he writes " The unidimensional man” ( One Dimensional Man ) who appears in France in 1968 and becomes a little the theoretical incarnation of the new revolt coed. In 1968 it travels by the Europe and holds of multiple conferences and discussions with the students. It then becomes a kind of theoretical interpreter of the formation of the student movements in Europe and in the United States. Its engagement within the political movements of the years 1960-70 does of it one of the most famous intellectuals of the time. He dies in 1979 at the 81 years age, at the time of a stay in Germany.

Its thought is strongly inspired by the reading of Marx and Freud. He is in particular the author of Eros and Civilization (1955) and of the unidimensional Man (1964) which wants to show the uneven and totalitarian character Capitalisme of “the thirty glorious ones”. These assertions were worth many criticisms to him: in particular that which would proclaim the tolerance towards all the opinions except the preserving ones.

In 2003, ashes of Marcuse were gone back to Berlin to be buried close to the tomb of Hegel.

Ideas

  • Contrary to Freud which saw in the principle of reality the need for the sublimation of the desires, Marcuse - following the reading of the young person Marx - recommends, on the contrary, the blossoming of the desires, the Eros, thanks to technological advances and with the advent of a new science which will be with the service of the man. He does not call in question the theories freudiennes, he rather supplements them by adapting them to his time.

  • the repression of the desire inherent in any culture (by the principle of reality subjected to the social requirements: cf Freud, Malaise in civilization ) went beyond the necessary one to meet false needs (principle of output, false dreams of publicity).

Principal works

  • the German novelist (1932): thesis of doctorate studied the relations between art and the company

  • Hegels Ontology und die Theory der Geschichtlichkeit (1932): work under the direction of Martin Heidegger.
  • Bases of the historical materialism (1932)
  • Concept of work (1933)
  • Der Kampf gegen den Liberalismus in DER totalitären Staatsauffassung (1934)
  • Autorität und Familie in DER deutschen Soziologie (a) 1933 (1936)

  • Reason and Revolution (1941): work trying to explain Fascism starting from the evolution of capitalism, and fascinating support on the concept weberien of rationalization of the company)

  • Eros and Civilization (1955). Transl. france 1958 Eros and civilization : work committed for a nonrepressive company. Many forms of work are obsolete today, which creates the conditions again modes of freedom.

  • Soviet Marxism . Transl. france Soviet Marxism (1958)
  • One-Dimensional Man . Transl. france the unidimensional Man (1964)
In these two books, Marcuse supports that technological rationality organizes each sector of the company (culture, policy, social, economy) so that they follow the essential ideological principle of the material productivity. The personal life is folded up then on uniform lifestyles and not protestors.

Period of hope of a revival of social criticism in front of the political success of the student movements disputing the foreign politics states-unienne.

  • Repressive Tolerance (1965)
  • Negations (1968)
  • Year Essay one Release . Towards the release (1969)
  • Counter-Revolution and Revolt (1972)

Marcuse joined at the end of its life a pessimistic optics. Esthetics is a form of freedom, ultimate refuge against the tender of the man to the materialism.

  • The Esthetic Dimension . Transl. france esthetic dimension (1978)

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