One-Dimensional Man

http://www.marcuse.org/herbert/pubs/64onedim/odmcontents.html

Notes

• For Marcuse, dialectical thinking involved the ability to abstract one's

perception and thought from existing forms in order to form more general concepts. This conception helps explain the dif- ficulty of One-Dimensional Man and the demands that it imposes upon its reader.

• Uncritical thinking derives its beliefs, norms, and values from

existing thought and social practices, while critical thought seeks alternative modes of thought and behavior from which it creates a standpoint of critique. Such a critical standpoint requires developing what Marcuse calls "negative thinking," which "negates" existing forms of thought and reality from the perspective of higher possibilities. This practice presupposes the ability to make a distinction between existence and essence, fact and potentiality, and appearance and reality. Mere existence would be negated in favor of realizing higher potentialities while norms discovered by reason would be used to criticize and overcome lower forms of thought and social organization. Thus grasping potentialities for freedom and happiness would make possible the negation of conditions that inhibited individuals' full development and realization. In other words, perceiving the possibility of self-determination and constructing one's own needs and values could enable individuals to break with the existing world of thought and behavior. Philosophy was thus to supply the norms for social criticism and the ideal of liberation which would guide social change and individual self- transformation

• Marcuse and Neumann propose, by contrast, integrating philosophy, sociology, and political theory in a theory of social change for the present age.