Operational and behavioral thinking serves as an instrument of social domination
Evidence
The insistence on operational and behavioral concepts turns against the efforts to free thought and behavior from the given reality and for the suppressed alternatives. Theoretical and practical Reason, academic and social behaviorism meet on common ground: that of an advanced society which makes scientific and technical progress into an instrument of domination. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 141
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: Directly supports the attention/consumption bridge argument — the flattening of critical thought this describes is the exact mechanism attention-economy critiques identify.
- DEEPTHINKING: Complex causal chain: operational habits of thought developed in science become generalized, barring oppositional concepts and rendering historical transcendence as un-scientific metaphysics — dense and worth sitting with.
- XREF: connects to: Operational concepts terminate in improved methods of social control — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 431; Domination becomes a mutual communicative asymmetry, not just objective control — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 315; Scientific rationalism becomes an instrument of social domination — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 141 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Operational concepts terminate in improved methods of social control
#expands(0.90) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 431 - Scientific rationalism becomes an instrument of social domination
#exemplifies(0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 141 - A rationality geared to domination shapes how we construe the Other
#expands(0.80) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 464 - Domination becomes a mutual communicative asymmetry, not just objective control
#complicates(0.75) — Philip Pettit, Republicanism, 315 - Domination is perpetuated by thought’s own ossification, not by technology
#qualifies(0.72)