A Research On The Marcuse’s Self-discipline Of Art Theory

Hebert Marcuse is the famous philosopher, artist and political activist of the time. He isone of representatives of Frankfurt School. In his whole ideological system, aesthetics playsan important role. In his view, aesthetics is always associated with the theory of humanemancipation. The core of aesthetics regards the art as the revolutionary weapon andemphasizes the artistic criticism and saving function. Then, why the art burdens the heavyhistorical mission? Which methods do the art employ to realize it’s liberate function? Does itreally lead people to the non-repressive and new civilization? This thesis tries to explore theseproblems, at the same time; it will illustrate and comment objectively about the rich contentand uniqueness of Marcuse’s theory of aesthetics ideas.The thesis is divided into five parts. The first is the introduction. It introduces thedevelopment of aesthetics concept self-regulation in history of Western aesthetics. Then, itintroduces the life and exploration of academy and the brief introduction of the research statusof Marcuse’s ideas at home and abroad which clarify the important position of self-disciplineof art theory and even the whole aesthetic thinking. With the aim of human liberation,Marcuse’s academic exploration has been classified into three stages: the early philosophicalaesthetics, the middle critical theory of society, and the late period of backing to explore artand aesthetic field. Chapter One discusses the formation process of Marcuse’s self-disciplineof art theory from the perspective of the historical background and ideological origins.Occident developed countries in which Marcuse lived has gone through twice World Wars andthen they stepped into the post-industrial society. Technological rationalization and popularculture are found in every corner of the daily life of society. From the individual to the wholesociety all changes into a kind of one dimensional existence. Under the background ofGerman classic aesthetics and traditional cultures, the thinkers, such as Heidegger, Hegel,Marx, and Freud and so on, have influenced the Marcuse’s academic exploration from theperspective of philosophy, sociology, psychology and so on, which finally brewed Marcuse’sself-discipline theory. Chapter Two is the main body of this thesis. It discusses the concept,expression, stakeholder, purpose and the connotation of Marcuse’s self-discipline of art theory.Aesthetic from acting as the ontology of art gives the art the different properties andself-discipline character. Self-discipline of arts refers to the art has the inherent law whichsupporting the existence of itself. And it isolates from the real world and it is not constrainedby the economic foundation and ideology. It does not yield to concept and interests of thespecific social stratum. The art burdens the important responsibility of liberating humanbeings with this kind of characteristics of free and independent and the negation and beyondthe real world. Chapter Three makes an evaluation about Marcuse’s self-discipline of art theory. Marcuse highly praises “High-level Culture” and emphasizes the elf-discipline of artand adheres to the cultural position of elite under the surrounding of developed Western socialand cultural industry, which is objectively locked into the trouble of cultural concept ofelitism. He regards the arts as the revolution weapon and the only hope of liberating humanbeings and rebuilding the world, which unavoidably gets the Utopian color. In the conclusion,it talks about Marcuse’s influence on the intellectuals at nowadays and the implicationsconnecting with critical position and humanism solicitude of Marcuse’s academic researchand uniting with socio-culture contexture. From Marcuse, we feel the humanist intellectual’scritical position and academic pursuits. Undoubtedly, as for the intellectuals nowadays,Marcuse sets an excellent example.