Herbert Marcuse's concept of reason

This work attempts to demonstrate that the unifying element of Herbert Marcuse's social and political theory was his concept of reason. It traces the concept through more than fifty years of Marcuse's writings and looks specifically at his insistence that dialectical philosophy, Marx's historical materialism, and psychoanalytic theory all encompass such reason. This meant, for Marcuse, that each of these systems of thought reflects, simultaneously, the socioeconomic world from which each emanates, as well as an indictment of the "unfreedom" of that world. In this way, Marcuse insisted that true knowledge is not neutral but has always been, and continues to be, bound up in the search for human freedom--reason reflects the tension between what exists and what is possible. The first chapter of this work looks specifically at Marcuse's concept of reason and at his claim that it is a concept which has always been part of the mainstream of Western philosophy. The concept is explained in terms of its classical roots, its philosophical culmination in Hegel's system, and its concretization in the materialist theory of Marx and Engels. The second chapter looks at the obviation of this dialectical reason and at Marcuse's analysis of the ascendency of positivist thought and scientific reason to a position from which they have come to dominate most spheres of intellectual development in the twentieth century. This analysis necessarily moves the discussion into the major aspects of Marcuse's critique of modern technological society. The third chapter examines Marcuse's attempt to employ Freudian psychoanalytic theory as a practical instrument for an explanation of hidden tendencies in our social and political reality. The chapter emphasizes that the Freudian theory of instincts encompasses that notion of reason with which Marcuse identifies, and that we must see Freud's system as social and historical rather than biological to understand its place in the continuum of social thought founded in reason. In the final chapter, Marcuse's of understanding of the possibilities for liberation and for the re-establishment of dialectical reason is examined. The work is concluded by a consideration of the status of Marcuse's critical theory since its death and of its relevancy at the end of the twentieth century.