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Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Herbert Marcuse Quotes

“In [Aristotle's] formal logic, thought is organized in a manner very different from that of the Platonic dialogue. In this formal logic, thought is indifferent toward its objects. Whether they are mental or physical, whether they pertain to society or to nature, they become subject to the same general laws of organization, calculation, and conclusion - but they do so as fungible signs or symbols, in abstraction from their particular "substance." This general quality (quantitative quality) is the precondition of law and order - in logic as well as in society - the price of universal control.”

WellsDifferentLawOrderQualitySubjectsObjectsParticularLogicOrganizationUniversalDialogueConclusionSymbolsSubstanceOrganizedIndifferentFormalAbstractionCalculationsLaw And OrderPlatonic
Author:Herbert Marcuse
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“Reason ... contradicts the established order of men and things on behalf of existing societal forces that reveal the irrational character of this order for "rational" is a mode of thought and action which is geared to reduce ignorance, destruction, brutality, and oppression.”

MenReasonCharacterActionOrderForceIgnoranceDestructionRationalOppressionIrrationalBehalfBrutalityThoughts And Actions
Book:One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
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“the society which projects and undertakes the technological transformation of nature alters the base of domination by gradually replacing personal dependence (of the slave on the master, the serf on the lord of the manor, the lord on the donor of the fief, etc.) with dependence on the "objective order of things" (on economic laws, the market etc.).”

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Book:One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
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“To the degree to which they correspond to the given reality, thought and behavior express a false consciousness, responding to and contributing to the preservation of a false order of facts. And this false consciousness has become embodied in the prevailing technical apparatus which in turn reproduces it.”

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Book:One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
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“The truth of literature and art has always been granted (if it was granted at all) as one of a "higher" order, which should not and indeed did not disturb the order of business. What has changed in the contemporary period is the difference between the two orders and their truths. The absorbent power of society depletes the artistic dimension by assimilating its antagonistic contents. In the realm of culture, the new totalitarianism manifests itself precisely in a harmonizing pluralism, where the most contradictory works and truths peacefully coexist in indifference.”

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Author:Herbert Marcuse
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