Table Of ContentM A R X I S M ,
R E V O L U T I O N A N D
U T O P I A
COLLECTED PAPERS OF HERBERT MARCUSE
EDITED BY DOUGLAS KELLNER
AND CLAYTON PIERCE
Volume One
TECHNOLOGY, WAR AND FASCISM
Volume Two
TOWARDS A CRITICAL THEORY OF SOCIETY
Volume Three
THE NEW LEFT AND THE 1960S
Volume Four
ART AND LIBERATION
Volume Five
PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOANALYSIS AND EMANCIPATION
Volume Six
MARXISM, REVOLUTION AND UTOPIA
HERBERT MARCUSE (1898–1979) is an internationally renowned philosopher,
social activist and theorist, and member of the Frankfurt School. He has been
remembered as one of the most influential social critical theorists inspiring the radical
political movements in the 1960s and 1970s. Author of numerous books including
One-Dimensional Man, Eros and Civilisation and Reason and Revolution, Marcuse
taught at Columbia, Harvard, Brandeis University and the University of California
before his death in 1979.
DOUGLAS KELLNER is George F. Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education at
UCLA. He is author of many books on social theory, politics, history and culture,
including Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism, Media Culture and Critical
Theory, Marxism and Modernity. His Critical Theory and Society: A Reader, co-edited
with Stephen Eric Bronner, and book Media Spectacle is also published by Routledge.
CLAYTON PIERCE is an assistant professor in the department of Education,
Culture, and Society at the University of Utah. His books include On Marcuse:
Critique, Liberation, and Reschooling in the Radical Pedagogy of Herbert Marcuse
(with Douglas Kellner and Tyson Lewis) and Marcuse’s Challenge to Education (with
Douglas Kellner, Tyson Lewis and Daniel Cho). His latest book Education in the Age
of Biocapitalism was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2013.
M A R X I S M ,
R E V O L U T I O N A N D
U T O P I A
H E R B E R T M A R C U S E
C O L L E C T E D PA P E R S
O F H E R B E RT M A R C U S E
Volume Six
E d i t e d b y
D o u g l a s K e l l n e r a n d C l a y t o n Pi e r c e
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Ave., New York City, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Selection and editorial matter © 2014 Douglas Kellner & Clayton Pierce
“Introduction: Marcuse’s Adventures in Marxism”
© 2014 Douglas Kellner & Clayton Pierce
Afterword © 2014 Peter Marcuse
The right of the author to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Control Number: 97154404
ISBN13: 978-0-415-13785-0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-1-315-81479-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by HWA Text and Data Management, London
C O N T E N T S
Introduction
Marcuse’s Adventures in Marxism
DOUGLAS KELLNER AND CLAYTON PIERCE 1
I Studies in Marxism 69
Review of Karl Vorländer’s Karl Marx: Sein Leben und Sein Werk 69
Value and Exchange Value 72
Recent Literature on Communism 74
Dialectic and Logic Since the War 82
Supplementary Epilogue Written in 1954 to Reason and
Revolution 94
Preface to Raya Dunayevskaya’s Marxism And Freedom (1958) 98
Review of George Lichtheim’s Marxism: An Historical and
Critical Study 104
Humanism and Humanity 106
Epilogue to Marx’s 18th Brumaire of Louis Napoleon 117
Afterword to Walter Benjamin’s Critique of Violence 123
The Concept of Negation in the Dialectic 128
The History of Dialectics 132
II Marxian Interventions 153
Marcuse on Cuba 153
The Emancipation of Women in a Repressive Society:
A Conversation with Herbert Marcuse and Peter Furth 161
Socialism in the Developed Countries 169
Socialist Humanism? 180
vi Contents
The Obsolescence of Marxism 188
Revolutionary Subject and Self-Government 196
Re-examination of the Concept of Revolution 199
Rat Marcuse 207
Letter from Inge Marcuse to Chancellor William J. McGill with
Comments by Harbert Marcuse 208
FBI Report on An Essay on Liberation 210
Angela Davis and Herbert Marcuse 212
Conclusions on Science and Society 217
The True Nature of Tolerance 218
III Lectures and Interviews on Marxism, Revolution and the
Contemporary Moment 222
Marxism Confronts Advanced Industrial Society 222
Obsolescence of Socialism 235
The End of Utopia 249
Discussion Between Herbert Marcuse and Peter Merseburger 264
Herbert Marcuse: Philosopher of the New Left 270
Varieties of Humanism: Herbert Marcuse talks with Harvey
Wheeler 277
Revolution 1969: Discussion with Henrich von Nussbaum 283
ACLU Conference: May 21 1969 289
Interview with Pierre Viansson-Ponte 297
IV Letters, Testimonies, and Responses to Critics 300
Letter to Max Horkheimer 300
Correspondence with Raya Dunayevskaya, 1957 301
Correspondence with Raya Dunayevskaya, 1961 313
Preface to Franz Neumann, The Democratic and Authoritarian
State 315
Soviet Theory and Practice 319
Letter to Karel Kosik 322
A Tribute to Paul Baran 323
On Changing the World: A Reply to Karl Miller 324
The Guardian, Reply to Critics 329
The Dialectics of Liberation and Radical Activism 330
Commentary on Henry Kissinger 332
Correspondence with Rudi Dutschke, 334
Jürgen Habermas, Letter to Herbert Marcuse 338
V Marxism and Revolution in an Era of Counterrevolution 340
Marxism and the New Humanity: An Unfinished Revolution 340
Interview with Street Journal & San Diego Free Press 346
Marx and Para-Marx on Capitalist Contradictions 355
Le Monde Diplomatique 358
Contents vii
An Interview with Herbert Marcuse by Gianguido Piani 362
Herbert Marcuse in 1978: An Interview by Myriam Miedzian
Malinovich 368
The Reification of the Proletariat 392
Protosocialism and Late Capitalism: Toward a Theoretical
Synthesis Based on Bahro’s Analysis 395
A Conversation with Herbert Marcuse: On Pluralism, Future,
and Philosophy 416
Herbert Marcuse Lead by Bill Ritter 422
Afterword
PETER MARCUSE 432
Index 435
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I N T R O D U C T I O N
M a r c u s e ’ s A d v e n t u re s i n M a r x i s m
D o u g l a s K e l l n e r a n d
C l a y t o n Pi e r c e
Throughout his life, Herbert Marcuse synthesized Hegelian, Marxian,
and other currents of modern philosophy and modern philosophy in an
attempt to reconstruct the Marxian theory in accordance with changes in
the trajectory of modern culture, politics, and society. Marcuse maintained
a critical and non-dogmatic approach to Marxism, seeing Marxian theories
of history and society as indispensable tools for developing a critical theory
of the contemporary moment. Interpreting Marxian categories as social and
historical, he saw the Marxian theory as in need of constant revision and
updating in the light of new historical and theoretical developments—just as
Marcuse himself constantly updated and developed his own work in reference
to existing social conditions, political struggles, and historical possibilities for
a freer, happier, and more egalitarian society that could offer alternatives to
the various systems of domination he mapped throughout his career.
As argued in previous volumes, Marcuse’s theory and politics were
marked by idiosyncratic and novel syntheses of philosophy, psychoanalysis,
aesthetics, and critical social theory. The combination of these traditions
directed Marcuse in his work toward human emancipation and social
transformation that was constantly situated within a Marxian theory of
