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Herbert Marcuse
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Herbert Marcuse (German pronunciation: [maku zә]) (July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a
Navigation Herbert Marcuse
German philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of
Main page critical theory. Celebrated as the "Father of the New Left,[1]" his best known works are Eros and
Contents Civilization, One-Dimensional Man and The Aesthetic Dimension.
Featured content
Contents
Current events
1 Early life
Random article
2 U.S.A.
3 The New Left and radical politics
Interaction 4 Marriage and death
5 Marcuse and capitalism
About Wikipedia
6 Notable works Full name Herbert Marcuse
Community portal
7 Bibliography
Recent changes Born July 19, 1898
8 See also
Contact Wikipedia Berlin, Germany
9 Further reading
Donate to Wikipedia Died July 29, 1979 (aged 81)
10 References
Help Starnberg, Germany
11 External links
Stroke

Era 20th century philosophy

Toolbox Early life [edit]
Region Western Philosophy
What links here Herbert Marcuse was born in Berlin to Carl Marcuse and Gertrud Kreslawsky and raised in a School Frankfurt School, critical theory
Related changes Jewish family. In 1916 he was drafted into the German Army, but only worked in horse stables in
Upload file Main Social theory, Marxism
Berlin during World War I. He then became a member of a Soldiers' Council that participated in the
interests
Special pages aborted socialist Spartacist uprising. He completed his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Freiburg in
Permanent link 1922 on the German Künstlerroman after which he moved back to Berlin, where he worked in Notable totally administered society,
ideas technological rationality, the Great
Cite this page publishing. In 1924 he married Sophie Wertheim, a mathematician. He returned to Freiburg in 1928
Refusal, New Reality Principle,
to study with Edmund Husserl and write a Habilitation with Martin Heidegger, which was published
libidinal Work Relations, work as
Print/export in 1932 as Hegel's Ontology and Theory of Historicity. This study was written in the context of the free Play, repressive tolerance
Hegel renaissance that was taking place in Europe with an emphasis on Hegel's ontology of life
Influenced by
Create a book and history, idealist theory of spirit and dialectic.[1] With his academic career blocked by the rise
Machiavelli, Rousseau, Hobbes, Kant, Hegel,
Download as PDF of the Third Reich, in 1933 Marcuse joined the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research.
Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Husserl,
Printable version
In 1933, Marcuse published his first major review, of Marx's Economic and Philosophical Heidegger, Lukács, Friedrich Schiller
Manuscripts of 1844. In this review, Marcuse revised the interpretation of Marxism, from the Influenced
Languages standpoint of the works of the early Marx. This review helped the world see that Marcuse was Norman O. Brown, Angela Davis, Andrew
becoming one of the most promising theorists of his generation.[1] Feenberg, Jürgen Habermas, Abbie Hoffman,
Gad Horowitz, Douglas Kellner, William Leiss,
Български While a member of the Institute of Societal Research, Marcuse developed a model for critical
Henri Lefebvre, Bob Black
Català
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
Česky Part of a series on the
Dansk
and critique of German fascism. Marcuse worked closely with critical theorists while at the Institute.[1]

Deutsch
U.S.A. [edit] Frankfurt School
Eesti
Ελληνικά After emigrating from Germany in 1933, in 1934, Marcuse immigrated to the United States, where he
Español became a citizen in 1940. Although he never returned to Germany to live, he remained one of the major
Esperanto 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 Georg W. F.
Français Hegel and Karl Marx.
Galego During World War II Marcuse first worked for the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI) on anti-Nazi
propaganda projects. In 1943 he transferred to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to
Hrvatski the Central Intelligence Agency. His work for the OSS involved research on Nazi Germany and
Ido denazification. After the dissolution of the OSS in 1945, Marcuse was employed by the US Department
Bahasa Indonesia of State as head of the Central European section, retiring after the death of his first wife in 1951. Major works

Italiano In 1952 he began a teaching career as a political theorist, first at Columbia University, then at Harvard
Reason and Revolution
University, then at Brandeis University from 1958 to 1965, where he taught philosophy and politics, and
Dialectic of Enlightenment
Latina finally (by then he was past the usual retirement age), at the University of California, San Diego. He was
Minima Moralia
Latviešu a friend and collaborator of the political sociologist Barrington Moore, Jr. and of the political philosopher Eros and Civilization
Lietuvių Robert Paul Wolff, and also a friend of the Columbia University sociology professor C. Wright Mills, one One-Dimensional Man
Nederlands of the founders of the New Left movement. Negative Dialectics
The Theory of Communicative Action
In the post-war period, Marcuse was the most explicitly political and left-wing member of the Frankfurt
Norsk (bokmål) [citation needed]
School , continuing to identify himself as a Marxist, a socialist, and a Hegelian. Notable theorists
Occitan
Marcuse's critiques of capitalist society (especially his 1955 synthesis of Marx and Freud, Eros and
Piemontèis
Civilization, and his 1964 book One-Dimensional Man) resonated with the concerns of the student Max Horkheimer ∙ Theodor Adorno
Polski movement in the 1960s. Because of his willingness to speak at student protests, Marcuse soon became Herbert Marcuse ∙ Walter Benjamin
Português Erich Fromm ∙ Friedrich Pollock
known as "the father of the New Left in the United States", a term he strongly disliked and disavowed.
Română Leo Löwenthal ∙ Jürgen Habermas
His work heavily influenced intellectual discourse on popular culture and scholarly popular culture
Русский studies. He had many speaking engagements in the US and Europe in the late 1960s and 1970s. He Important concepts
Sardu became a close friend and inspirer of the French philosopher André Gorz.
Slovenčina
Marcuse defended the arrested East German dissident Rudolf Bahro (author of Die Alternative: Zur Kritik Critical theory ∙ Dialectic ∙ Praxis
Slovenščina des real existierenden Sozialismus [trans., The Alternative in Eastern Europe]), discussing in a 1979 Psychoanalysis ∙ Antipositivism
Српски / Srpski Popular culture ∙ Culture industry
essay Bahro's theories of "change from within" [1] .
Srpskohrvatski / Advanced capitalism ∙ Privatism
Српскохрватски
The New Left and radical politics [edit]
v   • d  • e
Suomi
Svenska [2]
Many radical scholars and activists were influenced by Marcuse, such as Angela Davis , Abbie
Türkçe Hoffman, Rudi Dutschke, and Robert M. Young. (See the List of Scholars and Activists link, below.) Among those who critiqued him from the left
Українська were Marxist-humanist Raya Dunayevskaya, and fellow German emigre Paul Mattick, both of whom subjected One-Dimensional Man to a
Tiếng Việt Marxist critique. Marcuse's 1965 essay "Repressive Tolerance", in which he claimed capitalist democracies can have totalitarian aspects, has
been criticized by conservatives. [2] Marcuse argues that genuine tolerance does not tolerate 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
discriminatory form of tolerance that does not allow so-called "repressive" intolerance to be voiced. Marcuse later expressed his radical ideas
through three pieces of writing. He wrote An Essay on Liberation in 1969 celebrating liberation movements such as those in Vietnam, which
inspired many radicals. In 1972 he wrote Counterrevolution and Revolt, which argues that the hopes of the 1960's were facing a counterrevolution
from the right.[1]
After Brandeis denied the renewal of his teaching contract in 1965, Marcuse devoted the rest of his life to teaching, writing and giving lectures
around the world. His efforts brought him attention from the media, making his work more influential. He continued to promote Marxian Theory
and progressive socialism, with some of his students helping to spread his ideas. He published his final work The Aesthetic Dimension in 1979
on the role of high art in the process of emancipation from bourgeois society.[1]

Marriage and death [edit]

Marcuse married three times. His first wife was mathematician Sophie Wertman (1901–1951), with
whom he had a son, Peter (born 1928). Herbert's second marriage was to Inge Neumann (1910–
1972), the widow of his close friend Franz Neumann (1900–1954). His third wife was Erica Sherover
(1938–1988), a former graduate student and forty years his junior, whom he married in 1976. His son
Peter Marcuse is currently professor emeritus of Urban Planning at Columbia University. His
granddaughter is the novelist Irene Marcuse and his grandson, Harold Marcuse, is currently a
professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Ten days after his eighty-first birthday, Marcuse died on July 29, 1979, after having suffered a stroke
during a visit to Germany. He had spoken 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 USA, he was buried in the Dorotheenstädtischer cemetery, Berlin.

Marcuse and capitalism [edit]

Marcuse’s analysis of capitalism derives partially from one of Karl Marx’s main concepts:
Objectification.[3], which under capitalism becomes Alienation. Marx believed that capitalism was
exploiting humans; that the objects produced by laborers became alienated and thus ultimately
dehumanized them to functional objects. 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 Grave in the Dorotheenstädtischer 
cemetery, Berlin, where Marcuse's ashes
automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment,”[4] meaning that under capitalism (in
were buried in 2003.
consumer society) humans become extensions of the commodities that they create, thus making
commodities extensions of people's minds and bodies and calling into question the notion of
alienation.

Notable works [edit]

Reason and Revolution (1941) Presents the Hegelian Perspective along with a critique of Marxism and positivist philosophy.[5]
Eros and Civilization (1955) The use of Freud's ideas on life and death to critique how modern culture changes and isolates desire.[5]
One-Dimensional Man (1964) Marcuse's concerns about modern capitalism restricting the possibility of opposition.[5] He believed that the
industrialization was creating a one-dimensional way of thought and behavior which decreased opposition towards capitalism.[1]

Bibliography [edit]

The Struggle Against Liberalism in the Totalitarian View of the State (1934)
Reason and Revolution (1941)
Eros and Civilization (1955)
Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis (1958)
One-Dimensional Man (1964)
Repressive Tolerance (1965)
Negations (1968)
An Essay on Liberation (1969)
Counter-Revolution and Revolt (1972)
Studies in Critical Philosophy (1973)
“On the Problem of the Dialectic”. Telos 27 (Spring 1976). New York: Telos Press.
The Aesthetic Dimension (1978)

See also [edit]

Neo-Marxism
 Freudo-Marxism
Theodor Adorno
Walter Benjamin
Erich Fromm
Wilhelm Reich
André Gorz
Jürgen Habermas
Max Horkheimer
Georg Lukács
C. Wright Mills
Sigmund Freud
Gerhard Stapelfeldt
Georg Hegel
William Friedrich

Further reading [edit]

John Abromeit and W. Mark Cobb, eds. (2004) Herbert Marcuse: A Critical Reader, New York, London: Routledge.
Harold Bleich (1977) The Philosophy of Herbert Marcuse, Washington, D.C.: University Press of America.
Paul Breines (1970) Critical Interruptions: New Left Perspectives on Herbert Marcuse, New York: Herder and Herder.
Alfred C. Fred (1985) Science and Revenge of Nature: Marcuse and Habermas, Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
Christian Fuchs (2005). Emanzipation! Technik und Politik bei Herbert Marcuse. Aachen: Shaker. ISBN 3-8322-3999-5.
Christian Fuchs (2005). Herbert Marcuse interkulturell gelesen. Interkulturelle Bibliothek Vol. 15. Nordhausen: Bautz. ISBN 3-88309-175-8.
Douglas Kellner (1984). Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism. London: Macmillan. ISBN 9780520052956.
Herbert Marcuse (1998) Technology, War and Fascism, London: Routeledge.
Alain Martineau (1986). Herbert Marcuse’s Utopia, Harvest House, Montreal. ISBN 0-88772-027-7.

References [edit]

1. ^ a b c d e f g Douglas Kellner. <http://www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell12.htm >

2. ^ Davis, Angela (July 1971). "Rhetoric Vs. Reality: Angela Davis tells why black people should not be deceived by words" . Ebony (Chicago:
Johnson Publishing Company) 26 (9): pp. 115-120. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
3. ^ http://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/o/b.htm#objectification
4. ^ Harold Marcuse <http://www.marcuse.org/herbert/quotes/QuotRedThread.html#Capitalism >
5. ^ a b c "Marcuse, Herbert" A Dictionary of Sociology. John Scott and Jordan Marshall. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford University Press. 6
October 2009 <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t88.e1334 >

External links [edit]

Comprehensive 'Official' Herbert Marcuse Website , by one of Marcuse's grandsons, with full Wikiquote has a collection of
bibliographies of primary and secondary works, and full texts of many important works quotations related to: Herbert
http://www.marcusesociety.org International Herbert Marcuse Society website Marcuse

"Herbert Marcuse (on-line) Archive" at the Marxists Internet Archive

Wikimedia Commons has media
Herbert Marcuse Archive , by Herbert Marcuse Association
related to: Herbert Marcuse
"Marcuse: professor behind 1960s rebellion" , at worldsocialism.org
"Illuminations: The Critical Theory Project" (detailed biography and essays, by Douglas
Kellner).
Herbert's Hippopotamus: Marcuse and Revolution in Paradise , biographic documentary on Google video
Bernard Stiegler, "Spirit, Capitalism, and Superego"
"Herbert Marcuse Biography Indonesian" at aprillins.com
Luther Blissett feat. Herbert Marcuse - Rupture , music video

Categories: 1898 births | 1979 deaths | 20th-century philosophers | University of Freiburg alumni | Frankfurt School | German philosophers |
German sociologists | German atheists | American atheists | American socialists | Columbia University alumni | Harvard University alumni |
Marxist theorists | American sociologists | American Marxists | German Marxists | Revolution theorists | Jewish philosophers | Jewish
sociologists | Atheist philosophers | Jewish atheists | German Jews | Naturalized citizens of the United States | Critics of work and the work
ethic | German immigrants to the United States | People from Berlin | People from the Province of Brandenburg | Brandeis University faculty |
University of California, San Diego faculty | New Left

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