Marcuse’s early project merged Heideggerian phenomenology with Marx against Engels’ naturalism

Evidence

If, however, Heidegger must be complemented by Marx, so too should Marxism become phenomenological. … Marxism must also abandon its traditional belief that the ideological superstructure was a reflection of the socio-economic substructure. … Nor must a dialectical phenomenology try to investigate nature as it does history. Here Engels had been wrong. Natural being was different from historical being; mathematical, nondialectical physics was valid in its own sphere. … This, it should be added, was a point Lukacs made in History and Class Consciousness, as Marcuse acknowledged; it demonstrated the distance of their thinking from the more “scientific” Marxism of Engels and the orthodox Marxists of the Second International. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 274

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s chapter on Lukacs and the distance from orthodox Second International Marxism; also to Marcuse’s later Reason and Revolution. — connects to: Heidegger’s influence extended even to anti-humanist Marxism like Althusser — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 297; Marcuse’s unsubmitted habilitation read Hegel as anticipating Heidegger and Dilthey — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 276; Marcuse’s first Hegel book lacked the critical negation central to his later work — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 278 (+12 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies the project of ‘dialectical phenomenology’ — Marcuse’s synthesis of Heidegger and Marx against Engels’ scientific naturalism.

Broader Connections

• Horkheimer steered Marcuse from Heideggerian phenomenology toward critical Marxism #responds-to (0.90) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 283
• Marcuse planned a systematic theory of transitions between social systems #expands (0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 26
• Political crises pushed Marcuse toward Freud and a utopian radicalism #expands (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 367
• Marcuse’s rationalism and identity-thinking delayed his engagement with psychoanalysis #expands (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 365
• Lukács’s route to Marx passed through an inescapable Hegelian frame #corroborates (0.72)