Universal propositions like ‘wages are too low’ carry meaning that resists individual translation

Evidence

1. “Wages are too low.” The subject of the proposition is “wages,” not the particular remuneration of a particular worker on a particular job. The man who makes the statement might only think of his individual experience but, in the form he gives his statement, he transcends this individual experience. The predicate “too low” is a relational adjective, requiring a referent which is not designated in the proposition—too low for whom or for what? This referent might again be the individual who makes the statement, or his coworkers on the job, but the general noun (wages) carries the entire movement of thought expressed by the proposition and makes the other propositional elements share the general character. The referent remains indeterminate—“too low, in general,” or “too low for everyone who is a wage-earner like the speaker.” The proposition is abstract. It refers to universal conditions for which no particular case can be substituted; its meaning is “transitive” as against any individual case. The proposition calls indeed for its “translation” into a more concrete context, but one in which the universal concepts cannot be defined by any particular set of operations (such as the personal history of the worker B, and his special function in the plant W). The concept “wages” refers to the group “wage-earners,” integrating all personal histories and special jobs into one concrete universal. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 444

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precise definition of ‘transitive meaning’ — a universal proposition’s referent stays indeterminate and thus structurally critical.
• XREF: connects to: Philosophic universals designate unrealized potentialities rather than existing states — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 753; Expression alienates thought, requiring the Other’s freedom to give it meaning; Critical Theory seeks the universal within the particular rather than above it — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination: A History…, 724

Broader Connections

• Philosophic universals designate unrealized potentialities rather than existing states #expands (0.82) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 753
• Critical Theory seeks the universal within the particular rather than above it #expands (0.78) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 724
• Expression alienates thought, requiring the Other’s freedom to give it meaning #expands (0.75)