HERBERT MARCUSE: BIOGRAPHY, THEORY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Herbert Marcuse was a sociologist and philosopher born in Berlin, Germany, in 1898, known for his critical thoughts on capitalist society, which established him as one of the most relevant personalities of the first generation of the Frankfurt School.

Coming from a Jewish family, Marcuse worked as a soldier at the age of 16 in the First World War, was a participant in the German Revolution of November 1918 and in 1919 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), one of the oldest and most important political groups in the world.

His marked tendency towards social participation led him to study Germanistics, Economics and Philosophy at the University of Berlin, and later a doctorate at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau in 1922.

After his stay for a time in Berlin and after his marriage to Sophie Wertheim, in 1928 he returned to Freiburg to study Philosophy together with Martin Heidegger and Edmund Husserl, two great thinkers of the 20th century.

Influences

Marcuse's critical thoughts were initially influenced in his training by Georg Hegel, Karl Marx, Gyorgy Lukacs, and Max Weber, intellectuals and researchers who promoted the theories of the German psychologist Sigmund Freud at the Frankfurt School.

Additionally, he was part of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, a branch of the same school of philosophy, together with Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer.

However, with the arrival of Adolf Hitler to power in January 1933 the development of the projects was complicated due to his status as a Jew, for which he emigrated to Geneva, Switzerland, and later to Paris, France.

By then, Marcuse already had a certain status for his philosophical contributions within the group of intellectuals and he moved to the United States, where he was nationalized and continued his career at Columbia University, in New York, where a new one was established. headquarters of the Institute for Social Research.

Likewise, he worked at Harvard University and Berkeley as a political philosopher and as an activist in socio-political affairs between the 1950s and 1960s.

Towards the end of World War II Marcuse was considered one of the members of the Frankfurt School with the most marked and expresses a leftist tendency, since he used to identify himself as a Marxist, a socialist and a Hegelian, as well as promoting various emancipatory and emancipatory theories. youth protestant movements.

At this stage of his life, recognition for his perceptions reached its peak, as he was a leader in the youth revolutions of the 1960s, in which he issued important conferences, articles and speeches that promoted the breakdown of the capitalist industrial model..

Theory

The main philosophical tendencies that Marcuse studied were phenomenology, existentialism and Marxism, a trio of which he initially made a synthesis and that later other philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty would study.

His criticisms of capitalism in the synthesis Eros y la civilización (1955) and in his book El hombre unidimensional (1964) gave him the nickname "The father of the new left", a term he did not know.

Fundamentally, his thinking was marked by the conception of the existence of a method of social domination that oppresses the one-dimensional subject, but with the potential to free itself from said oppression, an idea that he differentiated as early capitalism.

On the other hand, in advanced capitalism - as he described - the proletariat has a better level and the revolutionary movements are already accepted by society.

Such a concept was one of his great contributions within the field, as it marked a transition between the first and second generation of the Frankfurt School.

Importance of needs

Within the same theory, Marcuse also distinguishes different needs that man possesses.

On the one hand, there are fictitious needs, which are created by modern industrial society through alienation, with the aim of maintaining the capitalist model; and, on the other hand, there are the real needs, those coming from human nature.

However, according to Marcuse's theory, man is not able to make such a distinction between his needs because his conscience and his thinking are alienated by the oppressive system.

Among the real needs that the philosopher identified is mainly freedom, an instinct that, for his ideas, industrial society represses and disposes for capitalist production.

In such a distinction between the needs of man, the Freudian influence of the three instances of consciousness is appreciated: the "it", the primitive human needs; the "I", the mediating point between the stimuli of man and his social environment; and the "superego", which represents the moral instance.

Therefore, Marcuse thus highlights a synthesis to analyze the being and the ought to be in the daily life of the human being and his relationship with the system.

Critical Marxism

Marcuse also stood out for his critical Marxism, since in addition to following the same thought, he also raised his own differences with the ideals of Marx.

Mainly, the concept of "alienation" Marcuse describes it from the point of view of human consciousness, since it is this that uses the system to coerce society and with it there is no way to rebel.

On the other hand, for Marx alienation is focused on the labor value and the energy that man uses in the workplace for the production of industrial society, which deprives him of freedom.

Another difference between the two intellectuals is that, according to Marcuse, Marxism favored the idea of ​​individual liberation and the well-being of man, but partially relegated the problem of the individual.

Division of ideas

Linked to Hegelian reasoning, Marcuse's thinking reached a decisive point when it was mixed with the critical theories of society of Max Horkheimer, in which he carried out analyzes that posed the ideal form of theory and praxis. This influence was marked in his famous work Hegel's Ontology and Theory of Historicity (1932).

This research sought to revalue the Hegelian dialectic and contribute to his studies due to the importance for him of the idealistic theory of the spirit and the fact of understanding history, especially in Europe, a place where this thought was growing.

Contributions

The ideals of this counterculture philosopher did not lack strong controversies and criticisms labeling him as "tendentious" or "sectarian."

However, Marcuse left in his wake a trail of social and political ideas that marked transitions between thoughts and research, but especially between generations of intellectuals, since his theories gave rise to the development of other critical reasoning carried out by thinkers of the same relevance within the scope.

His emancipatory ideals and Protestant youth and student movements spread the leftist trend not only in Europe and the United States, but also in Latin America.

His theoretical legacy could be translated into the conception of questioning that what is established does not have to be this way, so that the individual seeks to seek that real need for freedom through the study of his own consciousness with the weapon of philosophy.

After his death in 1979, Herbert Marcuse lost the influence that he achieved in life, but he always remained one of the most influential intellectuals, especially due to his sociopolitical debates in the 1960s, and even after this.

Academically, the German left behind a series of important articles, books, lectures, unpublished material and manuscripts on various topics such as war, technology and totalitarianism, which are currently in the Stadtsbibliothek in Frankfurt.

Studies in aesthetics

During the last years of his life, Marcuse developed part of his studies in aesthetics and art in one of his final works called The aesthetic dimension (1979), in which he bet on cultural emancipation as part of the revolutionary transformation of the societies.

Such perception was influenced by the Italian Antonio Gramsci, who four decades earlier had postulated said thinking.

This cultural liberation also fused it with the relationship of man in technological and economic aspects in his daily development, especially when these specialized methods were constantly advancing with human evolution.

In addition, he pointed out that "orthodox" Marxism, which does not come from Marx, represses the opening of new paths of change that encourage the creation of different forms, all through a false artistic idea.

Finally, Marcuse's illustrations compile psychological, social and political aspects that merge with each other for the development of man in the world.

They study in this way, and from various perspectives and currents of thought, a fundamental theoretical conflict that seeks to answer the question of whether societies are capable of evolving and changing from within, from each individual, and transcending the system.

If not, the psychology of the individual is part of an influenced discipline that does not have the abilities or the possibilities of being for itself, but rather in terms of the social forces to which it is subjected without being aware of it.

References

1. Arturo Fernández (2011). Herbert Marcuse: one-dimensional technological rationality as a contribution to critical theory. Taken from scielo.org.ar.
2. Biographies and Lives (2014-2018). Herbert Marcuse. Taken from biogramasyvidas.com.
3. Search biographies (1999). Herbert Marcuse. Taken from Buscabiografía.com.
4. Eixam (2014). Sociological Monday: Herbert Marcuse. Taken from exicamestudis.wordpress.com.
5. The Country (1979). On the death of Herbert Marcuse. Taken elpaís.com.
6. Marcuse (2001). Herbert Marcuse official home page. Taken from marcuse.org.
7. Wikipedia (2018). Herbert Marcuse, biography and thought. Taken from wikipedia.org.
8. Drafting Who (2013). Herbert Marcuse. Taken from who.net.