Marcuse justified government war work by treating theory-practice unity as utopian

Evidence

On the whole, however, Reason and Revolution was a fitting valedictory for Marcuse, whose association with the lnstitut was to lessen in the forties as his involvement with governmental service grew. Working with the OSS and the State Department was not precisely what the Frankfurt School had meant when it advocated revolutionary praxis, a point that its detractors on the left were to make in subsequent years. Still, like other members of the Institut who worked with the government during the war, Marcuse was faithful to the observation that the unity of theory and practice was only a utopian hope. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 297

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the left’s later critique of critical theorists as establishment intellectuals; echoes post-1968 accusations against Marcuse. — connects to: Marcuse’s central commitment was belief in the primacy of correct theory over practice. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 295; Utopian visions historically served as critical distance rather than action blueprints — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 840; The idealist appeal of unity concealed a permanent-war dynamic that went undetected — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 418 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Marcuse’s central commitment was belief in the primacy of correct theory over practice. #corroborates (0.85) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 295
• The idealist appeal of unity concealed a permanent-war dynamic that went undetected #responds-to (0.80) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 418
• Theory-practice unity develops historically from an instinctive sense of difference #expands (0.78) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1199
• Utopian visions historically served as critical distance rather than action blueprints #corroborates (0.72) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 840