Studien zur Ideologie der fortgeschrittenen Industriegesellschaft Soziologische Texte, 40
Hardcover, 282 pages
German language
Published April 16, 1967 by Luchterhand Fachverlag.
Der eindimensionale Mensch ist eines der bekanntesten Werke des deutsch-amerikanischen Soziologen und Philosophen Herbert Marcuse. Es erschien 1964 in den USA unter dem Titel One-Dimensional Man und wurde drei Jahre später in der Übersetzung von Alfred Schmidt auch in Deutschland verlegt. Der Untertitel der deutschen Ausgabe lautet: Studien zur Ideologie der fortgeschrittenen Industriegesellschaft. Marcuse wurde mit dem Werk in den 1960er Jahren zum Mentor der deutschen Studentenbewegung.
(Quelle: Wikipedia)
Desarrollo de lo esbozado en el texto "El carácter afirmativo de la cultura". No solo se estructura todo un sistema de pensamiento sino que se extiende por diferentes dimensiones (social, política, económica, individual, etc.). Obligatorio para comprender aspectos sociales de "Occidente" desde la Guerra Fría hasta estos días.
Third time reading this book all the way through. It's a good and enlightening text. His explorations of how critical, negative, thinking becomes increasingly impossible still holds true today. I also find the critique of technology and technics fascinating, especially the emphasis on technology developing in the modern era as a dominating force. Even though Marcuses philosophy of technology is ambivalent concerning whether its is a mere instrument or if technics have some substantial dominating content, I think the latter opens for a far more interesting discussion, especially concerning what we must do if we want to overcome capitalism. An overcoming of capitalism would probably also entail some form of transformation or revolution in technology. At the same time, the text is severely lacking when it comes to a more general understanding of capitalism. Trapped in the engelsian and second international interpretation of Capital, critical theory here as elsewhere are …
Third time reading this book all the way through. It's a good and enlightening text. His explorations of how critical, negative, thinking becomes increasingly impossible still holds true today. I also find the critique of technology and technics fascinating, especially the emphasis on technology developing in the modern era as a dominating force. Even though Marcuses philosophy of technology is ambivalent concerning whether its is a mere instrument or if technics have some substantial dominating content, I think the latter opens for a far more interesting discussion, especially concerning what we must do if we want to overcome capitalism. An overcoming of capitalism would probably also entail some form of transformation or revolution in technology. At the same time, the text is severely lacking when it comes to a more general understanding of capitalism. Trapped in the engelsian and second international interpretation of Capital, critical theory here as elsewhere are unable to grasp the more subtle details about the value-form and thus locate abstract domination in technology, instrumental reason and positivism. All I've read in critical theory points towards this lack, and the need for value-theory, theories of abstract domination and the state as ideal total capitalist is necessary to elevate critical theory from a progressive and sometimes even conservative critique of modernity, to a theoretical endeavor capable of supporting a communist movement today.
I found this book very difficult to read. Individual ideas made sense, and some of them I would like to explore more deeply, but once the discussion began, I became lost in the language and logic of social theory, which is not a field I have any previous knowledge of. So although individual ideas made sense, when I got to the end of a chapter I had no idea what I'd read. Which is really too bad because I think the author had some useful insights into modern Western society ... I'm just not sure what they are!
