One-Dimensional Man Research Articles

Marcuse, Capitalism, and the One-Dimensional Student

AbstractDrawing on critical theorist Herbert Marcuse’s analysis of modern technological society in his 1964 book, One-Dimensional Man, this article argues that the forces of one-dimensionality that characterize citizens under capitalism have necessarily found their way into schools, leading to what we see as an epidemic of the one-dimensional student. Where other scholars have focused on the impacts of capitalism on schooling and possible structural reform efforts through educational policy, this analysis takes seriously the role of the individual in overcoming an all too easy tendency toward one-dimensional thinking. Applying Marcuse’s fundamental concepts of one-dimensionality, the authors point to the ways in which schools and society actively teach and promote one-dimensionality. Through this application of Marcuse to the field of education, the authors uncover the subtle ways that schools shape the consciousness of students, and in doing so perpetuate one-dimensional society. The article concludes with a number of solutions that reassess educational aims to be more in tune with the sharpening of critical consciousness, or what Marcuse calls negative thinking, for the sake of freedom of self and society.

Heteronomy, Repression, and Collective Wisdom

One of the most controversial notions in Herbert Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man is the distinction between true and false needs. In this commentary, I suggest that Marcuse’s distinction is ambiguous between two readings, which I term the Repression Reading and the Heteronomy Reading, respectively. I argue that considerations from Maiese and Hanna’s (2019) notion of the Mind Shaping Thesis can help to see why we ought to reject the Heteronomy Reading in favor of the Repression Reading of false needs. I then suggest that the Repression Reading of false needs can, in turn, reveal some weaknesses in Maiese and Hanna’s theory of collectively wise social institutions.

Dialektika Progresif; “One Dimensional Man”, Desublimasi Represif: Kritik Herbert Marcuse Atas Masyarakat Industri Modern

Marcuse’s main idea is that technology and mass consumption have created a social order that makes people "one-dimensional human," losing the ability to think critically and see social alternatives. Marcuse argued that a fundamental change in society was needed to allow the liberation of individuals from the pressures and constraints generated by the capitalist system. The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the dialectic of Herbert Marcuse's approach to the "one-dimensional man" and repressive desublimation. This research method uses a qualitative approach with a critical approach to the study of Herbert Marcuse's thought. The concepts of "repressive sublimation" and "administrated" describe the way modern society directs its natural human impulses into a form regulated and controlled by social and political authorities. Repressive sublimation results in the suppression of self-expression and creativity, while administrated refers to the dominance of bureaucracy and technocracy in managing society. This results in unfreedom and homogenization in society. This study contains Marcuse's biography, looking at the content of his works, contributions to knowledge and communication, and the relevance of Herbert Marcuse's critical thinking to the current context. One Dimensional Man; is used as a spectacular work a narrative created to criticize the irrational and oppressive grand narrative of capitalism with an exploitative power structure through the affirmative dimension, for which Marcuse suggests rebuilding the dimension of negation; Where society again has critical power and is no longer in a state of silence.

Research on the Relationship between Ideology and Literature—Take Marcuse’s “One-Dimensional Man” as an Example

Research on the Relationship between Ideology and Literature—Take Marcuse’s “One-Dimensional Man” as an Example

Two sorts of philosophical therapy: Ordinary language philosophy, social criticism and the Frankfurt school

In a recent article, Fabian Freyenhagen argues that we should understand first-generation Frankfurt School critical theory (in particular, the work of Adorno and Horkheimer) as being defined by a kind of ‘linguistic turn’ analogous to one present in the later Wittgenstein. Here, I elaborate on this hypothesis – initially by calling it into question, by detailing Herbert Marcuse’s extensive criticisms of Wittgenstein (and other analytic philosophers of language) in One-Dimensional Man. While Marcuse is harshly critical of analytic ordinary language philosophy, he is much more sympathetic to a different sort of ordinary language philosophy, which he unpacks with reference to Karl Kraus. I show how, by getting Marcuse’s criticisms of Wittgenstein and other analytic philosophers, and lauding of Kraus, into view, we can better understand the first generation of the Frankfurt School as having practised a sort of ‘non-quietistic’ philosophical therapy (that may or may not have been the sort of thing that Wittgenstein himself had in mind).

The Living Predicament of Human on the Verge of Modernity

“One-Dimensional Man” reflects the living predicament of people on the verge of modernity, that is, the dehumanization of existence state, the atomization of existence mode and the nihilization of existence meaning. Herbert Marcuse believes that the root cause of this predicament lies in the ideological role of science and technology, and then puts forward the realization of human liberation through philosophical criticism, cultural revolution and artistic redemption. However, because it is based on cultural and ideological criticism, the liberation program has a strong utopian color. In spite of this, Marcuse's theory of "one-dimensionality" deeply reveals the homogeneity of human society in the process of modernization, and its critical spirit provides enlightening significance to China's socialist modernization.

Marcuse’s critique of technology today

Marcuse was the face of the Frankfurt School during the 1960s and '70s. His eclipse led, among other unfortunate consequences, to the disappearance of his critique of science and technology. That critique is based on an experiential ontology that derives in part from Marcuse’s background in phenomenology. In this paper I trace the roots of that ontology in his early interpretation of Marx’s Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. One-Dimensional Man takes up the phenomenological critique in a Marxist vein. This critique is newly relevant now that we face impending environmental catastrophe due to climate change. Thus the study of Marcuse today is not simply academic, but once again politically significant.

The issue of social control in late modernity: alienation and narrativity

This article shows to what extent the new situation in our late-modern societies can see a further deepening of the social control typical of soft totalitarianism we experience in our globalised democracies, through the mechanisms already denounced by Arendt in her The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951): the promotion of rootlessness and superfluity. In particular, the paper focus on what Eliot (1927) called the hollow man or what philosophy and sociology have called the one-dimensional man, the absent subject or the saturated self, which the technological, social, cultural and economic environment in which we live so favours. The article diagnoses the reasons and means by which the alienation of the subject occurs, but proposes narrative and testimony as ways of combating social control of a psychopolitical kind[1]. [1] Investigación financiada por el proyecto del Banco de Santander – CEU titulado “Control social, posmodernidad y comunidad política” (COSOPOC) con código B920PR02 // FUSPBC-PPC14/2018.

PHILOSOPHY AND ENGINEERING

The divorce of technical education from philosophy and humanism leads to the loss of critical thinking and the edification of the one-dimensional man. My article aims to indicate the main points of connection between these two spheres and to outline the fertile, organic way in which the work of the engineer could be integrated in a value-oriented approach and put in the service of humanity.

A New Concept of Reason?

In One-Dimensional Man, Herbert Marcuse followed Husserl in arguing that modern natural science translates concepts and practices from the Lebenswelt, the everyday lifeworld. Marcuse claimed that a socialist revolution would change that life-world and transform natural science. He anticipated a new concept of reason that would incorporate potentialities experienced in the lifeworld. Teleological aspects of everyday experience would be “materialized” by science. Marcuse’s critique of social science employs a similar concept of translation. The notion that changes in the lifeworld would enable the social sciences to incorporate potentialities is more plausible than these speculations about a successor natural science. But Marcuse’s assumption that such changes would occur after a socialist revolution has been overtaken by the actual development of social movements challenging the socially embedded technosciences. The reciprocal interaction between science and society in the struggle for a liveable world is now a present phenomenon, no longer a distant revolutionary prospect.

Problems of Learning Activities in Modern Education

Modern man is a one-dimensional society (one-dimensional man); meaning that all sides of his life are only directed at one goal, namely the sustainability and improvement of the existing system, the system is none other than capitalism. This paper tries to unravel the problems of learning activities in modern education in two perspectives, namely the psychological perspective and the philosophical perspective. This paper used qualitative research method. Western learning theory has dominated and has a great influence in the realm of socio-cultural politics as well as in education. In influencing or dominating education from a psychological perspective, there are at least 4 views on learning theory.

One-Dimensional Man, One-Dimensional History: Re-reading Herbert Marcuse

Abstract In this article I revisit Herbert Marcuse’s 1964 work One-Dimensional Man with the goal of reactivating Marcuse’s critique of one-dimensional society but in regard to the current practice and discipline of history. On my reading, it is in the field of history that the dangers of one-dimensionality are felt most acutely today. Especially in the ways that historians and philosophers of history continue to render history as a mausoleum to warehouse an entombed and inactive past. In what follows, I offer a willful and intentional reading of the role and place of philosophy of history in One-Dimensional Man in order to demonstrate the ways that history and historians have now become key proponents of one-dimensionality. I then marshal Marcuse’s analysis, though shorn of the speculative teleology that characterizes the two-dimensional history of Marcuse’s dialectic, in order to reactivate history as a multi-dimensional force to enact change in the future.

The Subject of Discourse Is the Public: Interpretation Based on One-Dimensional Man

The paper is based on Herbert Marcuse’s analysis of language in the One-Dimensional Man, it elaborates on the current problems in the field of discourse. With the continuous technological innovation, the improvement of productivity and efficiency separates discourse from the broadest public, and some people grab the ownership and use right of certain discourse. Moreover, the irregular use of language not only damages the language itself, but also destroys the discourse ecology, thus causing the defect of the public discourse right. Analyzing the impact of these phenomena on the society and the public is conducive to solving the injustice in the current society. The use of discourse should belong to all people, because everyone lives in the world equally. The author used literature analysis method to study the separation of discourse and the public in the current society from the interdisciplinary perspective, in order to call for renewed public attention to discourse. The concern of discourse ownership is the pursuit of fairness and justice. In the process of the public's equal enjoyment of all rights arising from language, it will not only promote the confirmation and play of human subjectivity, but also benefit the development of the whole society.

SOUTH AFRICA 2016 – A COMING OF AGE: THEOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE FUTURE OF SOUTH AFRICA

This essay marks the maturing of South Africa's democracy since it was established in 1994. It raises questions as to whether the democratic dispensation has fulfilled what it promised, and it examines the reasons thereof. In essence it reasons that democracy has failed the people of South Africa because it lacks democratic accountability, and a firm foundation on the expressed will of the people. The theological and ethical factors in addressing the failings of a democratic system come into view. The essay concludes with an affirmation of the essential character of the church in promoting and defending justice in the world. One-dimensional thought is systematically promoted by the makers of politics and the purveyors of mass information. Their universe of discourse is populated by self-validating hypotheses which necessarily and mono-politically repeated, become hypnotic definitions and dictations... The products indoctrinate and manipulat; they promote a false consciousness that is immune against falsehood… This emerges a pattern of one-dimensional thought and behavior… Herbert Marcuse: One-Dimensional Man (1964)

Digital Society and Multi-Dimensional Man (Repositioning Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man)

One of the major concerns of the social philosophy is the technological revolution and its impacts on the social systems. Critical views on the systems from the social philosophers depart from the social predicaments of their time. The pivotal critic of Karl Marx in his work of Das Capital , for example, is on poverty caused by the system of capitalism. Capitalism, for him, only produces various social downturns such as slavery, oppressions, exploitations and impoverishment. Herbert Marcuse, meanwhile, pointed at the same problem, but he came from a different point of view from Marx. Marcuse criticized the abundant society. In One Dimensional Man Marcuse rendered a couple of incisive critics on the industrial society. Industrial society, for him, is marked by the abundance and surplus but this society is still oppressed under a new type of slavery, called voluntary slavery . We may briefly say that both philosophers rendered critics on the same matter of the industrial society, but the two stood on the different position. Marx’s critic was on the hungry and deficient society, while Marcuse on a satiated, plenteous and surplus society. The aim of this paper is to present of how Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man ends in the digital age.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IDEAL MALE BODY MASCULINITY IN THE MISTER INTERNATIONAL PAGEANT

As Michael Foucault had said that the human body is not really free; the concept of the body as well as the concept of the human sexuality in fact are ruled by and obey the great power behind them. A great narrative about the body and also the sexuality that has been agreed by societies, consciously or unconsciously has successfully dictated societies’ point of view in placing their body and sexuality. The concept of a male body that has been characterized by its perfunctory appearance, in the sense of not necessary to primp, actually is a great narrative that is considered as a true necessity. This topic is unique and interesting to study because Mister International pageant as the representation of world’s male masculinity offers the different great narrative masculinity concept that has been shackling the traditional masculinity concept of Indonesian society. This study will analyze the signs of masculinity shown in Mister International pageant as the ideal men’s quest in the world. The result of this study indicates that the ideal male masculinity constructed in Mister International pageant if viewed from the concept of traditional sexuality is a combination between the concept of femininity and the concept of masculinity that then brought out to a new terminology about the concept of masculinity called as metrosexual. The concept of masculinity constructed by this ideal men’s quest in the world, if examined by Herbert Marcuse’s point of view, actually is a concept uniformity of the world's ideal male body in one dimension. Furthermore, the great narrative behind this uniformed ideal male construction is a world’s major capitalists’ project to expand their market share, especially male cosmetics and clothes products.Keywords: Construction, Masculinity, Ideal Male Body, One-Dimensional Man.

Saharan Recreation: From a Transformation of Bodily Experiences to a Transformation of Cultural Representations

ABSTRACT If the desert was long perceived as a hostile and inhospitable territory, it was gradually conquered during the 20th century by the practice of sports and leisure activities. The aim of this article is to study these practices in the Saharan zone and, in particular, the genealogy of these practices in relation to speed. The first period, in the continuity of modernity thinking, was characterized by a time of acceleration of sports practices. The practice of desert driving and extreme sports are obviously the most symbolic of this period. Placed under the influence of a ‘technological paradigm’, these practices reflect the expression of ‘One-Dimensional Man’ in the language of sport. Today, these sports practices are more or less in decline, and new corporal and leisure practices are definitively joining a logic of slowness a more intimate projection of the body in nature and sustainable leisure. The development of Saharan hiking, the revival of camel riding, and sand bathing are evidence of this trend. In these new Saharan practices, slowness can be analysed as an emerging experience (Andrieu 2017b) of belonging to the World and Nature. The depth of the body is rediscovered through a body ecology that translates the awakening of a body placed in a life-giving situation at the heart of nature. This exhalation of an existential resourcing requires a spatial support, a counterpart of ‘corpospatiality’ which must be analysed through a second use or diversion. The slowing down of the pace of activities then makes it possible to envisage new ways of being in the world and interacting with it. These new bodily experiences in the desert can finally be seen as the expression of a renewed ecosophy understood as wisdom based on communion with nature, with others and with oneself.

The Implication and the Prospect of Reading Classics in the Neoliberal Era: Reading One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse

The Implication and the Prospect of Reading Classics in the Neoliberal Era: Reading One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse

Wandering and Placemaking in London: Iain Sinclair’s Literary Methodology

Wandering and Placemaking in London: Iain Sinclair’s Literary Methodology

The Cultural Revolution in David Lodge’s Changing Places

Utilizing Herbert Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man (1962) and Counterrevolution and Revolt (1972) as a theoretical backdrop, this article seeks to gauge the extent to which the teachings of the German philosopher and political theorist lay the groundwork for the protests mounted by the university students in David Lodge’s campus novel Changing Places (1975). Admittedly, the Student Revolution spilled over into numerous fields. However, given space restrictions, only its cultural manifestations will be examined. It will be clear that at the root of Lodge’s students’ uprising lies an overpowering urge to break with the cultural heritage and with the academics upholding it. It will be equally clear, nonetheless, that these young activists’ faith in Marcuse’s political doctrine is unwelcome to conservative academics on the ground that it has diverse adverse effects on universities. Not only are politically oriented texts and discourses given precedence over traditional ones but also teachers and administrators are, at times, hindered from doing their duties. The plausible conclusion to draw, in the light of the research’s findings, is that although cultural revolutions undeniably pave the way for a number of personal and collective achievements and help us modernize many aspects of life, they should not blind us to the enduring significance of previous cultural traditions and of the aesthetic value of literary works.