Herbert Marcuse (1898 - 1979)
Related: sixties counterculture - cultural Marxism - Frankfurt school - Freudo-Marxism
Herbert Marcuse, was the spokesman of the countercultural sixties who fostered the development of, as conservative Buchanan points out, "radical youth, feminists, black militants, homosexuals, the alienated, the asocial, Third World revolutionaries, all the angry voices of the persecuted ‘victims’ of the West." [Dec 2006]
Eros and Civilization : A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud (1955) - Herbert Marcuse
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]Herbert Marcuse's critiques of capitalist society (especially his 1955 synthesis of Marx and Freud, Eros and Civilization, and his 1964 book One-Dimensional Man) resonated with the concerns of the leftist student movement in the 1960s. Because of his willingness to speak at student protests, Marcuse soon became known as "the father of the New Left" (a term he disliked and rejected). His work heavily influenced intellectual discourse on popular culture and scholarly popular culture studies. He had many speaking engagements in the US and Europe in the late 1960s and in the 1970s.
Biography
Herbert Marcuse (* July 19, 1898 to † July 29, 1979) was a prominent German-American philosopher and sociologist of the Frankfurt School.
Herbert Marcuse was born in Berlin, served as a soldier in the First World War and then participated in the aborted socialist Spartacist uprising, which was ultimately crushed by the forces of the Weimar Republic. After completing his Ph.D. thesis at the University of Freiburg in 1922, he moved back to Berlin, where he worked as a bookseller. He returned to Freiburg in 1929 to write a habilitation (professor's dissertation) with Martin Heidegger. In 1933, since he would not be allowed to complete that project under the Nazis, Herbert began work at the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research and, along with Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, became one of the major theorists of the Frankfurt School.
He emigrated from Germany that same year, going first to Switzerland, then the United States, where he became a citizen in 1940. During World War II he worked for the US Office of Strategic Services (forerunner of the CIA), analyzing intelligence reports about Germany (1942-45-51).
In 1952 he began a teaching career as a political theorist, first at Columbia University and Harvard, then at Brandeis University from 1958 to 1965, where he was professor of philosophy and politics, and finally (already retirement-age), at the University of California, San Diego. He was a friend and collaborator of the historical sociologist Barrington Moore, Jr. and of the political philosopher Robert Paul Wolff. In the post-war period, he was the most explicitly political and left-wing member of the Frankfurt School, continuing to identify himself as a Marxist, a socialist, and a Hegelian.
Marcuse's critiques of capitalist society (especially his 1955 synthesis of Marx and Freud, Eros and Civilization, and his 1964 book One-Dimensional Man) resonated with the concerns of the leftist student movement in the 1960s. Because of his willingness to speak at student protests, Herbert soon became known as "the father of the new left" (a term he disliked and rejected). His work heavily influenced intellectual discourse on popular culture and scholarly popular culture studies. He had many speaking engagements in the US and Europe in the late 1960s and in the 1970s. He died on July 29, 1979, after having suffered a stroke during a visit to Germany. Second-generation Frankfurt School theorist Jürgen Habermas cared for him during his final illness. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Marcuse [Nov 2004]
Repressive tolerance
Repressive tolerance is the title of a 1965 essay by Herbert Marcuse. Today, the concept of repressive tolerance is largely referred to as co-optation. Co-optation refers to the tactic of neutralizing or winning over a minority by assimilating them into the established group or culture. In sociology, co-option refers to a trend or idea being incorporated into mainstream culture. See also cultural appropriation.
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It denotes acculturation or assimilation, but often connotes a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture. It can include the introduction of forms of dress or personal adornment, music and art, religion, language, or social behavior. These elements, once removed from their indigenous cultural contexts, may take on meanings that are significantly divergent from, or merely less nuanced than, those they originally held. Or, they may be stripped of meaning altogether. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repressive tolerance [Dec 2006]
Eros and Civilization : A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud (1955) - Herbert Marcuse
Related: eros - civilization - Sigmund Freud
Eros and Civilization is one of Herbert Marcuse's best known works. Written in 1955, it is a synthesis of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Its title alludes to Freud's Civilization and its Discontents. Marcuse's vision of a non-repressive society, based on Marx and Freud, anticipated the values of 1960s countercultural social movements. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eros_and_Civilization [Dec 2006]
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