Horkheimer steered Marcuse from Heideggerian phenomenology toward critical Marxism

Evidence

Once Marcuse joined the Institut, the influence of Horkheimer on his work became pronounced. He abandoned Heidegger’s vocabulary, as the impact of phenomenology on his thinking began to recede. Descending somewhat from the level of philosophical abstraction, he began to deal with more concrete social and historical issues. He ceased to use Marxism as a positive philosophy answering Heidegger’s question about “authentic being” and began employing it more as a critical, dialectical methodology useful in explaining history, not historicity. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 283

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general narrative of the Frankfurt School’s shift from existential/phenomenological philosophy to the Horkheimerian Critical Theory program. — connects to: Marcuse’s early project merged Heideggerian phenomenology with Marx against Engels’ naturalism — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 274; Heidegger’s Nazi affiliation routed Marcuse into the Frankfurt School. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 14; Being and Time supplied what Marcuse found missing in Marxist theory — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 391 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Heidegger’s Nazi affiliation routed Marcuse into the Frankfurt School. #responds-to (0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 14