This article explores the complexities of Marcuse’s philosophical anthropology in light of Foucault’s criticisms of Marcuse and the Frankfurt School. While Marcuse’s theory of human nature is grounded upon a dialectical conception of essential human potentialities striving for realization, it secretes a radically plastic conception of life that undermines all anthropological essentialism. This fundamental tension between essentialist and plastic conceptions of human nature has significant implications for rethinking Marcuse’s project and legacy.
AggerBen. 1992. The Discourse of Domination: From the Frankfurt School to Postmodernism. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
2.
AssmannJ.1997. Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.
3.
BernsteinJay M.1994. The Frankfurt School: Critical Assessments. Vol. IV. New York: Routledge.
4.
BernsteinRichard J.1998. Freud and the Legacy of Moses. London and New York: Cambridge University Press.
5.
DeleuzeGillesGuattariFélix. 1983 [1972]. Anti Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by HurleyRobert and others. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
6.
DerridaJacques. 1978. Writing and Difference. Translated by BassAlan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
7.
DerridaJacques. 1981. Positions. Translated by BassAlan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
8.
DerridaJacques. 1996. Archive Fever: A Freudian Impression. Translated by PrenowitzEric. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
9.
DerridaJacques. 2005. On Touching-Jean-Luc-Nancy. Translated by IrizarryChristine. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
10.
FoucaultMichel. 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. Edited by GordonColin. Translated by GordonColinMarshallLeoMephamJohnSoperKate. New York: Vintage Books.
11.
FoucaultMichel. 1990 [1976]. The History of Sexuality: Vol. I: An Introduction. Translated by HurleyRobert. New York: Vintage Books.
12.
FoucaultMichel. 2000. Power. Edited by FaubionJames. Translated by HurleyRobert and others. New York: The New Press.
13.
FreudSigmund. 1976 [1938]. Findings, Ideas, Problems. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXIII (1937-1939). Translated by StracheyJames. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
14.
FreudSigmund. 1989 [1930]. Civilization and Its Discontents. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. Translated by StracheyJames. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
15.
FrommEric. 1965 [1941]. Escape from Freedom. New York: Avon Books.
16.
HeideggerMartin. 1991. Nietzsche. Volumes III & IV. Edited & Translated by KrellDavid Farrell. New York: HarperCollins.
17.
HeldDavid. 1980. Introduction to Critical Theory: Horkheimer to Habermas. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
18.
JayMartin. 1996. The Dialectical Imagination: The Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research 1923-1950. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
19.
KellnerDouglas. 1984. Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
20.
LukácsGeorg. 1971 [1923]. History and Class Consciousness. Translated by LivingstoneRodney. London: Merlin Press.
21.
MarcuseHerbert. 1962 [1955]. Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud. Vintage Books Edition. New York: Vintage Books.
22.
MarcuseHerbert. 1969a. An Essay on Liberation. Boston: Beacon Press.
23.
MarcuseHerbert. 1969b. Negations: Essays in Critical Theory. Boston: Beacon Press.
24.
MarcuseHerbert. 1970. Five Lectures: Psychoanalysis, Politics, and Utopia. Translated by ShapiroJeremy J.WeberShierry M.. Boston: Beacon Press.
25.
MarcuseHerbert. 1972. Counterrevolution and Revolt. Boston: Beacon Press.
26.
MarcuseHerbert. 1973. Studies in Critical Philosophy. Translated by BresJoris de. Boston: Beacon Press.
27.
MarcuseHerbert. 1977. The Aesthetic Dimension. Translated by SheroverErica. Boston: Beacon Press.
MarcuseHerbert. 2000 [1941]. Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory. 2nd edn. New York: Routledge.
30.
MarcuseHerbert. 2001. The Collected Works of Herbert Marcuse Vol. II: Towards a Critical Theory of Society. Edited by KellnerDouglas. New York: Routledge.
31.
MarxKarl. 1988. Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. Translated by MilliganMartin. New York: Prometheus Books.
32.
Plato. 2001. Plato’s Symposium. Translated by BenardeteSeth. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
33.
ReichWilhelm. 1980 [1946]. The Mass Psychology of Fascism. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
34.
WhitebookJoel. 2002. “Michel Foucault: A Marcusean in Structuralist Clothing.” Thesis Eleven71: 52.
35.
YerushalmiYosef Hayim. 1991. Freud’s Moses: Judaism Terminable and Interminable. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
