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Herbert Marcuse

Herbert Marcuse Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Herbert Marcuse Quotes

“Such abstraction which refuses to accept the given universe of facts as the final context of validation, such "transcending" analysis of the facts in the light of their arrested and denied possibilities, pertains to the very structure of social theory.”

FactsLightUniverseGivenSocialAcceptingPossibilityTheoryStructureFinalsRefuseAnalysisDeniedAbstractionArrestedValidationTranscendingSocial Theory
Book:One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
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“Many, and I think the determining, constitutive facts remain outside the reach of the operational concept. And by virtue of this limitation this methodological injunction against transitive concepts which might show the facts in their true light and call them by their true name the descriptive analysis of the facts blocks the apprehension of facts and becomes an element of the ideology that sustains the facts. Proclaiming the existing social reality as its own norm, this sociology fortifies in the individuals the "faithless faith" in the reality whose victims they are.”

ThinkingFactsShowsRealityLightMightNamesIndividualSocialVirtueElementsConceptsVictimBlockIdeologyLimitationAnalysisNormSociologyApprehensionProclaimingFaithless
Book:One dimensional man: studies in the ideology of advanced industrial society
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“The capabilities (intellectual and material) of contemporary society are immeasurably greater than ever before - which means that the scope of society's domination over the individual is immeasurably greater than ever before. Our society distinguishes itself by conquering the centrifugal social forces with Technology rather than Terror, on the dual basis of an overwhelming efficiency and an increasing standard of living.”

MeanIndividualForceSocialTechnologyGreaterMaterialsIntellectualStandardsBasesTerrorContemporaryConquerOur SocietyOverwhelmingCapabilityEfficiencyDominationScopeStandards Of LivingContemporary Society
Author:Herbert Marcuse
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“The judgment that human life is worth living, or rather can and ought to be made worth living, ... underlies all intellectual effort; it is the a priori of social theory, and its rejection (which is perfectly logical) rejects theory itself.”

HumansMadeLife IsSocialEffortTheoryOughtJudgmentIntellectualHuman LifeRejectionRejectsLogicalWorth LivingLife Is Worth LivingSocial Theory
Book:One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
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“The means of communication, the irresistible output of the entertainment and information industry carry with them prescribed attitudes and habits, certain intellectual and emotional reactions which bind the consumers to the producers and, through the latter to the whole social system. The products indoctrinate and manipulate; they promote a false consciousness which is immune against its falsehood...Thus emerges a pattern of one-dimensional thought and behavior.”

MeanWholeCertainSocialConsciousnessAttitudeInformationEmotionalProductsCommunicationIndustryHabitBehaviorIntellectualPatternsEntertainmentReactionsProducersConsumersLatterFalsehoodManipulateIrresistibleImmuneOutputSocial SystemsMeans Of CommunicationEmotional Reactions
Author:Herbert Marcuse
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“A work of art can be called revolutionary if, by virtue of the aesthetic transformation, it represents, in the exemplary fate of individuals, the prevailing unfreedom and the rebelling forces, thus breaking through the mystified (and petrified) social reality, and opening the horizon of change (liberation).”

IfsArtRealityIndividualForceSocialVirtueFateTransformationOpeningLiberationRevolutionaryWorks Of ArtHorizonAestheticPrevailingExemplary
Book:Art and Liberation: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse
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“Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves. Free choice among a wide variety of goods and services does not signify freedom if these goods and services sustain social controls over a life of toil and fear – that is, if they sustain alienation. And the spontaneous reproduction of superimposed needs by the individual does not establish autonomy; it only testifies to the efficacy of the controls.”

IfsNeedsDoeChoicesIndividualSocialMastersElectionSlaveWideVarietyGoodsSpontaneousToilAutonomyAlienationAbolishReproductionEfficacyGoods And ServicesFree ChoiceSocial ControlFree Elections
Book:One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society
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“Where these reduced (operational - E.W.) concepts govern the analysis of the human reality, individual or social, mental or material, they arrive at a false concreteness - a concreteness isolated from the conditions which constitute its reality. In this context, the operational treatment of the concept assumes a political function. The individual and his behavior are analyzed in a therapeutic sense - adjustment to his society. Thought and expression, theory and practice are to be brought in line with the facts of his existence without leaving room for the conceptual critique of these facts.”

HumansFactsRealityPoliticalCultureIndividualSocialLinesRoomsExistencePracticeConditionsExpressionMaterialsTheoryBehaviorConceptsFunctionAssumingLeavingAnalysisTreatmentIsolatedAdjustmentCritiqueTherapeuticTheory And Practice
Author:Herbert Marcuse
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