Heideggerian Marxism

by Herbert Marcuse, Richard Wolin (Introduction), John D. Abromeit (Introduction)

The Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979) studied with Martin Heidegger at Freiburg University from 1928 to 1932 and completed a dissertation on Hegel’s theory of historicity under Heidegger’s supervision. During these years, Marcuse wrote a number of provocative philosophical essays experimenting with the possibilities of Heideggerian Marxism. For a time he believed that Heidegger’s ideas could revitalize Marxism, providing a dimension of experiential concreteness that was sorely lacking in the German Idealist tradition. Ultimately, two events deterred Marcuse from completing this the 1932 publication of Marx’s early economic and philosophical manuscripts, and Heidegger’s conversion to Nazism a year later. Heideggerian Marxism offers rich and fascinating testimony concerning the first attempt to fuse Marxism and existentialism.

 

These essays offer invaluable insight concerning Marcuse’s early philosophical evolution. They document one of the century’s most important Marxist philosophers attempting to respond to the “crisis of Marxism”: the failure of the European revolution coupled with the growing repression in the USSR. In response, Marcuse contrived an imaginative and original theoretical “existential Marxism.”

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Theory, Nonfiction

264 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2005

About the author

German-Jewish philosopher, political theorist and sociologist, and a member of the Frankfurt School. Celebrated as the "Father of the New Left", his best known works are Eros and Civilization, One-Dimensional Man and The Aesthetic Dimension. Marcuse was a major intellectual influence on the New Left and student movements of the 1960s.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like it. Marcuse's early attempt at fusing Marx and Heidegger may have been problematic and incomplete, but it provides a interesting window into these two very different, yet not entirely dissimilar, philosophical traditions.

[Tristan Bass-Krueger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been unsatisfied with any merger of phenomenology and Marxism I've come across, which is unfortunate because I do believe they can speak to each other. Marcuse himself thought his attempts were unsuccessful, and the interview compiled here where he denounces Heidegger and his own early reading of him is fairly interesting, but other than that I can't say any of this stuck with me.