Herbert Marcuse: Negative Thinking And Alienation
Negative Thinking and Alienation
Marcuse understands negative thinking as the necessary abstraction from what is immediately before us and what is not to figure out the limitations and restrictions of our social reality. The ‘Negative’ disregards the given structure of our society in terms of the capabilities of human beings not yet realized by the ‘positive’. In order to critically analyse the role of negative thinking in Herbert Marcuse’s, One-Dimensional Man this paper will first explore the origin of the social theory which traces back to Karl Marx. After understanding what Marcuse takes to be the relationship between man and his social reality and how his concept of One-Dimensionality and negative thinking contradicts the classic Marxist …show more content…
The twentieth century saw two world wars, extreme technological advancement and the rise and fall of communism. Marx believed that the production forces drive the proletariat into such circumstances they could only revolt, instead the West seemed to keep up to the promise of wealth. But despite what it looked like, the impacts of the capitalist production forces on the society did not transit from ‘industrialism’ to ‘advanced capitalism’. Instead, they have become so deeply imbedded in our society that it requires deep analysis of social life to discover their effects.
“Scientific management and scientific division of labour vastly increased the productivity of the economic, political, and cultural enterprise which resulted in a higher standard of living. At the same time and on the same ground, this rational enterprise produced a pattern of mind and behaviour which justified and absolved even the most destructive and oppressive features of the enterprise.” (Marcuse …show more content…
One-dimensional thought accepts the established reality, whereas two-dimensional thought negates the established reality and tends to utilize the two-dimensional course and come up with a way with greater possibilities of human existence. To further understand Marcuse’s concept of negation, we will now examine the role of negation in ‘One-Dimensional Man’
“In the equation Reason = Truth = Reality, which joins the subjective and objective world into one antagonistic unity, Reason is the subversive power, ‘the power of the negative’ that establishes, as theoretical and practical Reason, the truth for men and things.” (Marcuse 123) To find the truth, the mediation between the subjective and objective world is important. Essential truths can be dealt through philosophical analysis, when reason determines that reality is in contradiction with the essential truth, ‘Reason’ negates it and creates a more favourable situation. Now, the potential truth has become the real
Marcuse understands negative thinking as the necessary abstraction from what is immediately before us and what is not to figure out the limitations and restrictions of our social reality. The ‘Negative’ disregards the given structure of our society in terms of the capabilities of human beings not yet realized by the ‘positive’. In order to critically analyse the role of negative thinking in Herbert Marcuse’s, One-Dimensional Man this paper will first explore the origin of the social theory which traces back to Karl Marx. After understanding what Marcuse takes to be the relationship between man and his social reality and how his concept of One-Dimensionality and negative thinking contradicts the classic Marxist …show more content…
The twentieth century saw two world wars, extreme technological advancement and the rise and fall of communism. Marx believed that the production forces drive the proletariat into such circumstances they could only revolt, instead the West seemed to keep up to the promise of wealth. But despite what it looked like, the impacts of the capitalist production forces on the society did not transit from ‘industrialism’ to ‘advanced capitalism’. Instead, they have become so deeply imbedded in our society that it requires deep analysis of social life to discover their effects.
“Scientific management and scientific division of labour vastly increased the productivity of the economic, political, and cultural enterprise which resulted in a higher standard of living. At the same time and on the same ground, this rational enterprise produced a pattern of mind and behaviour which justified and absolved even the most destructive and oppressive features of the enterprise.” (Marcuse …show more content…
One-dimensional thought accepts the established reality, whereas two-dimensional thought negates the established reality and tends to utilize the two-dimensional course and come up with a way with greater possibilities of human existence. To further understand Marcuse’s concept of negation, we will now examine the role of negation in ‘One-Dimensional Man’
“In the equation Reason = Truth = Reality, which joins the subjective and objective world into one antagonistic unity, Reason is the subversive power, ‘the power of the negative’ that establishes, as theoretical and practical Reason, the truth for men and things.” (Marcuse 123) To find the truth, the mediation between the subjective and objective world is important. Essential truths can be dealt through philosophical analysis, when reason determines that reality is in contradiction with the essential truth, ‘Reason’ negates it and creates a more favourable situation. Now, the potential truth has become the real