The Task of Dialectical Thinking in the Age of One-Dimensionality

From time to time we find ourselves in a political and social crisis or situation that forces us to recall great insights that were once a part of our intellectual landscape. These great insights were articulated by prophetic voices that for whatever reason have been prematurely returned to our bookshelves to collect dust. This unfortunate fate befell Herbert Marcuse, who enjoyed a brief moment in the intellectual spotlight during the 1960s and 1970s. Recently there has been a renewed interest in Marcuse’s work. This new volume of Marcuse’s writings edited by Andrew Feenberg and William Leiss is an important contribution to the revival of Marcuse studies. The essays in this volume covers a 40 year range of Marcuse’s work, from 1932 to 1972. This forty year period captures the early Marcuse—under the influence of Hegel, Marx, and Heidegger—attempting to develop a post World War I social theory of Western industrial society. We see Marcuse’s program develop through his later engagement with Freud. This volume takes us up to Marcuse’s post-1968 reflections on nature and liberation. The essays are divided into three parts: political critique; Marxism, existentialism, psychoanalysis; and philosophical critique. In this review I will attempt to organize and discuss these essays under what I take to be their common theme. It is a theme that permeates all of Marcuse’s works, regardless of the wide range of topics that he covers and the multiplicity of influences from which he draws. It is not uncommon to hear Marcuse’s readers complain about his work being somewhat inconsistent. Indeed, Marcuse has been accused of mood swings. For example, Eros and Civilization is often read as an optimistic work, while One-Dimensional Man is read as more pessimistic. This way of characterizing