Marcuse diluted existentialist anthropology into a theory of indirect essence correspondence

Evidence

Talk of the historicity of human essence and its complete reversal was countered by an appeal to an unwavering vision of the essence of man, which holds firm through every actual reversal, and which Marcuse, as a Marxist existential ontologist, held up as an unshakeable standard. Existential anthropology, the theory of man as an undetermined finite being thrown into the world, was diluted by Marcuse into a conception of human beings as able to achieve correspondence with their own essence only indirectly. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 422

Categorization

• DEFINE: Characterizes how Marcuse transmuted Heideggerian thrownness into a Marxist essentialist anthropology — a useful reference point for the Frankfurt School’s German existentialism debts.
• XREF: connects to: Being and Time supplied what Marcuse found missing in Marxist theory — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 391; Marcuse’s rationalism and identity-thinking delayed his engagement with psychoanalysis — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 365; Marcuse planned a systematic theory of transitions between social systems — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 26 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Marcuse’s rationalism and identity-thinking delayed his engagement with psychoanalysis #complicates (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 365
• Marcuse planned a systematic theory of transitions between social systems #complicates (0.70) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 26