Life And Historicity

Life and historicity are two very important concepts in Marcuse's early thought, which compose one of the theoretical bases of his whole thought in a certain extent. Historicity is the essence of historical process. Marcuse thinks history as the process of self-realization of individual life in society. During this process, it will get freedom if individual life has the unity of itself and others, itself and objective world. The concept of historicity is about to explain this freedom, what individual life fulfilling in historical process.The thesis tries to explain the deep meaning of historicity, based on the understanding of Marcuse's early thought. Then, I will combine the developing of his late thought to analyze the theoretical meaning of the concepts of life and historicity. There are five parts in this thesis.Part I primarily introduce the theoretical background of Marcuse's research about life and historicity. Marcuse began his research for rejecting reification when he met Scientific Marxism, based on criticizing and absorbing Heidegger's thought. The goal of this research is in order to find out the theoretical basis for radical revolution.Part II and part III are grounded on Marcuse's early German-to-English work Hegel's Ontology and the Theory of Historicity, the thesis will clarify the concepts of life and historicity. Then, I will figure out several meanings of historicity and its function of reject Scientific Marxism. Life, as self-consciousness, has undergone the phrases of desire, the relationship of lord and slave, reason, finally actualizes the unity of itself in spirit. This unity must be carried out through mutual fight.Part IV and part V primarily analyze the change of Marcuse's concepts of life and historicity, and refer to the revises of his theory when he faced advanced industrial society in his late period, the thesis will continue to explain the meaning of his theory. Grounded on it, I will clarify the practical value of Marcuse's social ideality and his criticism about reification.