Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization is the true continuation of Critical Theory

Evidence

In retrospect, the Freud book can be seen as Marcuse’s major theoretical work. Moreover, in comparison with the 1955 publications listed earlier in this chapter, and even with what was published in the years before and after, it has the best claim to be seen as a continuation of Critical Theory. In Reason and Revolution (1941) Marcuse had attempted systematically to snatch Hegel from the hands of reaction and fascism and demonstrate that Marx’s social theory was the heir to the critical tendencies in Hegel’s philosophy. In 1946 he had suggested producing a special issue of the planned new journal containing a systematic assessment of the political, economic and cultural ideas and programmes of the significant parties in post-war Germany. In 1947 he was the only one to draft programmatic theses around which to orient the new journal. Later on, the product of his fellowships at the Russian Institute at Columbia University and the Russian Research Center at Harvard was Soviet Marxism (1958), a systematic critique of Soviet Marxist ideology which took Marx’s theory as its yardstick. In One-Dimensional Man (1964) he attempted a systematic critique of the ideology of advanced industrial society. In Eros and Civilization, similarly, he used the dynamics of instinct to provide Critical Theory with a basis of a sort. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2130

Categorization

• XREF: A survey of Marcuse’s career arc from Reason and Revolution through Soviet Marxism to One-Dimensional Man frames his Freud book as the most genuinely critical-theoretical work — speaks to the institutional definition of what counts as ‘real’ Critical Theory. — connects to: Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization best continued Critical Theory’s trajectory.; Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization revived the revolutionary Freud Horkheimer and Adorno had rejected. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 364; Marcuse and Neumann preserved Critical Theory’s political project that Horkheimer and Adorno abandoned — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 31 (+1 more)
• DEFINE: The passage implicitly defines what the Institute understood as genuine continuation of Critical Theory — critique measured against Marx’s own theory, not mere application.

Broader Connections

• Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization revived the revolutionary Freud Horkheimer and Adorno had rejected. #corroborates (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 364
• Marcuse and Neumann preserved Critical Theory’s political project that Horkheimer and Adorno abandoned #expands (0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 31