Philosophy

Abstract: I take up Karl Marx’s and Herbert Marcuse’s investigations into the characteristics of, and the conditions of possibility for, expanding the experience of freedom and play. The essay begins with an analysis of three possible approaches to resolving the labor question. Finding each approach ultimately unsatisfactory, the essay goes
The Authoritarian Personality *The following is reposted from Marxists.org. First published: in Deutsche Universitätszeitung, Band 12 (Nr. 9, 1957), pp. 3-4; Translated: by Florian Nadge; CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2011. What do we mean by “authoritarian personality”? We usually see a clear difference between the individual who
“The contemporary movement that seeks to restrict liberty on campus arose specifically in the provocative work of the late Marxist political and social philosopher Herbert Marcuse . . .”  ―Alan Charles Kors and Harvey A. Silverglate In recent years highly publicized educational commentators, like David Horowitz (2006a, 2006b, 2000), and
“From a very early stage the ideological history of the bourgeoisie was nothing but a desperate resistance to every insight into the true nature of the society it had created.” G. Lukács     Removing a statue of a philosopher? You may expect something like this to happen in Nazi
*The following article by Jeanne Willette is reposted from Art History Unstuffed, originally posted March 2, 2012.   Theodor Adorno and “Negative Dialectics”   THEODOR ADORNO (1903-1969) AND IDENTITY Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno wrote their critique of the culture of Western civilization, Dialectic of Enlightenment during the Second World War. When the book
*This essay by John Abromeit is reposted from Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture. If one wants to address the question of what Frankfurt School Critical Theory can still teach us about the resurgence of right-wing populism in Europe and the United States in recent times, one must call
*The following interview of Herbert Marcuse by Larry Hartwick is reposted from the Publications Page of the Official Herbert Marcuse website, managed by Harold Marcuse. This interview, conducted in 1978, originally appeared in a locally distributed publication at the University of California, San Diego: Contemporary Literature 22(1981), 417-424 On the
This is the first installment of what I intend to be an ongoing personal blogging project called “Critical Theory Down to Earth.” In these posts I will provide summaries and brief reflections of writings throughout the wider critical theory landscape. Because I am personally drawn toward epistemology, first generation Frankfurt
*The following article is reposted from Marxists.org. Aggressiveness in Advanced Industrial Society Written: in German in 1967; First Published: by Beacon Press, Boston as Negations: Essays in Critical Theory by Herbert Marcuse; Source: Walter Benjamin Research Syndicate. Mark-up: Andy Blunden. I propose to consider here the strains and stresses in
This post is part of my ongoing blogging project called “Critical Theory Down to Earth.” In these posts I provide summaries of and brief reflections on writings throughout the wider critical theory landscape. Nietzsche begins the essay on a misanthropic note. He rails against the arrogance of humanity in thinking so