Marcuse gave standard philosophical categories a materialist base.

Evidence

During the 1930s, Marcuse worked intensively, attempting to explicate and develop philosophical concepts that would be most useful for critical social theory. This project involved the interrogation of the concepts of essence, happiness, freedom, and, especially, critical reason, which he believed was the central category of philosophical thought and critique. In each case, he took standard philosophical categories and provided them with a materialist base, showing how concepts of essence, for instance, are directly relevant to concrete human life. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 15

Categorization

• XREF: Concept of essence made material — the human being’s essential features illuminating potentialities — grounds the existence/essence gap that subsequent chapters and current critique rely on. — connects to: Marcuse argued bourgeois notions of freedom actually sanctioned existing authority — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 424; Marcuse’s early project merged Heideggerian phenomenology with Marx against Engels’ naturalism — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 274; Marcuse fused Heidegger, Freud, and Marx into cultural-revolutionary theory. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2140

Broader Connections

• Marcuse’s early project merged Heideggerian phenomenology with Marx against Engels’ naturalism #expands (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 274