Research On Marcuse’s Technology Alienation Theory--Based On Historical Materialism

Since the revolution,science and technology have developed rapidly,while people’s living standards have been improved,at the same time,people increasingly feel that they are controlled by science and technology,and even the way people live has undergone tremendous changes.Western Marxism,which was born and developed in the 20 th century,deeply understands this point.They attach great importance to the development of science and technology,especially in advanced capitalist society.Herbert Marcuse is a representative figure of Frankfurt School of Western Marxism.He inherited the Frankfurt School’s critical tradition of instrumental rationality,raised instrumental rationality to the level of technological rationality,and replaced the criticism of capitalist political and economic system by criticizing the expansion of technological rationality,finally forming the theory of technological alienation.Based on Marxist historical materialism,this paper expounds the forming background and main contents of Marcuse’s thought of technological alienation,and tries to sort out and analyze its theoretical value and limitations in order to get ideological warning and inspiration.Specifically,it mainly expounds the following three aspects:Firstly,it expounds the background and ideological origin of Marcuse’s theory of technological alienation.In the analysis of the background of the times,the main characteristics of Marcuse’s era are studied from four aspects,namely,the coming of the era of science and technology,the occurrence of two world wars,the rapid development of industrial society and economy,and the occurrence of western cultural crisis in the 20 th century,namely,the dimensions of science and technology,politics,economy and culture.On the issue of theoretical origin,the origin of Marcuse’s technology alienation theory is traced back from the thoughts of many thinkers such as Marx,Lukacs,Freud and Heidegger who have great influence on Marcuse’s thought.Secondly,it analyzes the main content of Marcuse’s technology alienation theory.On the concrete manifestation of technological alienation,Marcuse mainly put forward two aspects: "one-dimensional society" and "one-dimensional man".The whole one-dimensional society mainly presents the integration of economic,political and cultural fields;People who live in it become one-dimensional people with only positive consciousness because of the loss of negation,criticism and transcendence.Secondly,it analyzes Marcuse’s exploration of the root of technological alienation in developed industrial society.Marcuse believes that technological alienation is mainly caused by two reasons.On the one hand,in the late stage of capitalism,the rapid development of technology provided powerful means and tools for pursuing the maximum efficiency.Technological rationality can be said to be the most typical performance of instrumental rationality in the contemporary era,and even become the value standard for measuring all social things.On the other hand,the domination of technology over people is not accidental.The ideology inherent in technology is used by the ruling class,and finally centralized rule is formed.Finally,Marcuse put forward the way to eliminate technological alienation.On the one hand,Marcuse thinks that we can get rid of the alienation of society and people by liberating the "new sensibility" that created aesthetics and art.On the other hand,Marku put forward a new revolutionary theory-Great Rejection,and believed that a new society can be established by the revolutionary way of "Great Rejection".Thirdly,based on Marx’s historical materialism,on the one hand,it evaluates the theoretical value and limitations of Marcuse’s technological alienation thought;on the other hand,based on China’s current development situation,it deeply considers and analyzes the warning and enlightenment of Marcuse’s technological alienation theory on promoting people’s all-round development and realizing the goal of building a strong country with science and technology in China.