Bio: (1898-1979) German-American political philosopher. Herbert Marcuse studied at the University of Freiburg and then joined the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt. After the Nazis came to power in Germany, he emigrated to the United States, where he worked at the universities of Columbia, Harvard, and Brandeis. Marcuse is one of the most important representatives of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, and during the 1960s he became one of the ideological leaders of the new left and student protests.

In his 1930s articles, Marcuse writes about critical theory, totalitarianism, psychoanalysis, and economic reductionism. Marcuse's critique of economic reductionism in Marx's theory is particularly important. Marcuse pointed out that work in production, although very important, suppresses other activities, materializes and alienates man, and prevents him from fully developing his abilities. The game is the complete opposite of work because it enables the development of freedom and happiness. Marcuse also researched what he called the "affirmative character of culture" in civil society. Bourgeois liberal idealism ascribes to the individual the ability and right to seek happiness and promotes abstract ideals of freedom and equality. On the other hand, these abstract ideals do not turn into something concrete, because in society huge part of the population lives in poverty and misery. This is exactly the affirmative character of culture. Liberal humanization does not strive to create a humane society but moves humanization into the domain of the soul of the individual, which should achieve happiness for itself. Because there is misery and injustice in society, poor people flee in resignation, which only increases the misery. Marcuse believes that by leaving a bad social organization and creating a new society, both social and individual happiness can be achieved.

In his book Reason and Revolution (1941), Marcuse explores the dialectical method of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Marx. He believes that Marxism stems from the legacy of German idealism, in which a critical conception of the world emerged. The world is full of banalities and lies, so philosophy must, with its critical power, take off that mask and reveal the true image of the world, which is characterized by human suffering and injustice, and false beauty. Negation is the most important feature of dialectics because it reveals facts about reality that call into question the existing order. In this book, Marcuse criticizes positivist science, because it identifies with facticity, scientism, and conservatism. Marcuse also distances himself from Marx by abandoning the idea that it is the working class that has the historical task of transforming society. Marx hoped that industrialization would accelerate the social and economic processes that would lead to workers' revolutions. However, such a prediction did not come true, because in the West there was a strengthening of social democracy, which led the working class to give up revolutionary aspirations, while, on the other hand, in the Soviet Union, industrialization contributed to increased repression and exploitation.

Marcuse explores the situation in the Soviet Union in detail in his book Soviet Marxism (1958). In the USSR dialectics has turned into an ideology that hides the real state of affairs and provides illusions of historical progress. This ideology is pseudo-dialectical, because it treats the working class as immature, and it has turned dialectics into the worst means of ideological propaganda. The party directed the entire transformation of society - industrialization, collectivization of agriculture, reform of culture, reform of the education system - towards the creation of public Puritan morality of ordinary people, in order to maintain its power and the existing repressive order. This order is only seemingly anti-capitalist because it sets itself the same goals - increasing production, creating a conformist consent to the existing situation, and suppressing human needs for sexuality and openness. That is why he considers both the Soviet and capitalist systems to be convergent.

Marcuse seeks to defend and adapt Freud's theory in his book Eros and Civilization (1955). He rejects Fromm's elaboration of Freud's theory because he considers it "revisionist." Freud believes that there is a synthesis of the instinct for life (Eros) and the instinct for death (Thanatos) in life, while Fromm diminishes the importance of the instinct for death or destruction. Marcuse believes that both instincts are important and that there is no need to diminish the importance of the instinct for death because the energy of destruction can destroy itself since it is limited by the limits of civilization. There must be destruction in the world in order to build, and vice versa, which makes both instincts paradoxical. The energy of destruction has helped build civilization, but it will gradually calm down, which will lead to changes in people's instincts and the transformation of culture. People will become capable of limiting destructive impulses and directing them in a positive direction, so bans will disappear.

Revisionists try to cultivate man, within the existing culture, by spreading the value of freedom. But they are wrong because innate instincts in people cannot be removed in that way, so the sublimation of negative instincts cannot remove repression. Marcuse believes that civilization is not necessarily repressive, because, on an unconscious level, it increases the intellectual drive for freedom and happiness, which is visible in works of human creativity and art. Although "basic repression" is necessary for every society, modern society imposes "surplus repression" because it limits sexuality and creates economic exploitation. His vision of a better society is based on an economy in which exploitation and alienation have been abolished, and sexuality is manifested freely.

In the book One-Dimensional Man (1964), Marcuse explores forms of reification in a developed industrial society. Reification is reflected in the growth of the race for profit, bureaucratic impersonality, militarism, mass conformism, and value-empty culture. Technology and consumerism have prevented social criticism and conflict by assimilating and pacifying criticism and opposition from the working class by constantly creating "false needs." The end result is the emergence of a " one-dimension man " who is unable to think critically about the society in which he lives. That is why true critical thought must come from marginal social strata, which are not integrated into the system. Marcuse studies the limits of tolerance in his book A Critique of Pure Tolerance (1965). He believes that the liberal idea of ​​tolerance helps to reduce criticism of the existing society, because such tolerance requires the acceptance of oppressive discourse, and therefore, such oppressive and discriminatory speech should be limited in public discourse.

Main works

Hegels Ontologie und die Grundlegung einer Theorie der Geschichtlichkeit (1932);

„Der Kampf gegen den Liberalismus in der totalitären Staatsauffassung“, in Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung (1934);

Studien über Autorität und Familie. Forschungsberichte aus dem Institut für Sozialforschung (1936);

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 (1964);

A Critique of Pure Tolerance (1965);

Kultur und Gesellschaft (1965);

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).

Work translated into English:

Hegel's Ontology and the Theory of Historicity (1987, in German 1932).