Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory

by Herbert Marcuse

Overview

It is of the very definition of any "classic" work that it will not only introduce a new depth and direction of thought, but that its original insights endure. When it first appeared in 1940, Reason and Revolution by Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) was acclaimed for its profound and undistorted reading of Hegel's social and political theory. Today, the appreciation of Marcuse's work has remained high, more relevant now than ever before.In the rapidly changing context of post-Cold War political realities, there is no better guide than Marcuse to where we have been and to what we might expect. As he well understood, turbulent and spectacular political events always ran within channels earlier set by political theory; and he equally understood that it was Hegel's often unappreciated and misunderstood theory which actually set a fundamental path of modern political life.It is a fortunate combination to have a scholar of Marcuse's brilliance and lucid honesty addressing the sources and consequences of Hegel's social theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781573927185
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/1999
Edition description:	100TH ANNIVERSARY
Pages:	440
Sales rank:	680,329
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) was a philosopher, sociologist, and political theorist. He studied at the University of Berlin and the University of Freiburg, and became a crucial figure at the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, and of the Frankfurt School of social theory. He was forced to leave Germany in 1933, eventually settling in the United States, where he would spend much of his life and taught at many of the country's greatest schools and universities. A Hegelian-Freudian-Marxist, Marcuse highlighted the cultural forms of repression and the role of technology and the expansion of the production of consumer goods in the maintenance of the stability of capitalism. His classic studies of capitalist society were important influences on the New Left of the 1960s and 1970s and his libertarian socialism remains an important intellectual resource. Philosophical speculation seldom attracts headlines, let alone threats of death. Yet such was the fate that overtook Herbert Marcuse in the late 1960s, when he was catapulted into international controversy as a prophet of the revolutionary student movement. Among his major writings are Reason and Revolution, One-Dimensional Man, and Eros and Civilization.

Table of Contents

Part 1 The Foundations of Hegel’s Philosophy; introd Introduction; Chapter 1 Hegel’s Early Theological Writings (1790–1800); Chapter 2 Towards the System of Philosophy (1800–1802); Chapter 3 Hegel’s First System (1802–1806); Chapter 4 The Phenomenology of Mind (1807); Chapter 5 The Science of Logic (1812–16); Chapter 6 The Political Philosophy (1816–1821); Chapter 7 The Philosophy of History; Part 2 The Rise of Social Theory; Introduction; Chapter 8 The Foundations of the Dialectical Theory of Society; Chapter 9 The Foundations of Positivism and the Rise of Sociology; Conclusion;

Editorial Reviews

**** This is the latest reprinting of Marcuse's famous effort to recover Hegel from the authoritarian right and for the progressive left. Marcuse's interest is less in the abstract nature of Hegelian philosophy than in Hegel's bearing upon European thought from the time of the French Revolution to the present. Of particular importance is the transition from speculative philosophy to social theory, and hence Hegel's value to Marx and the modern left. A classic in the field. The Beacon reprint (of the Oxford, 1941 edition), of which this is a reprint, is cited in BCL3. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"The overarching themes of Marcuse's thought are as relevant today as they were when his scholarship and political interventions were most widely celebrated." - Angela Y. Davis, Marcuse's Legacies

"Brilliant and penetrating ... the most important work which has opened up an understanding of Marx's humanism." - Erich Fromm

"A guiding figure to many social activists" - The New York Times

"Marcuse brought a forceful clarity to the leftist table; a classical Marxism willing to confront new realities." - The Nation

"Written with a remarkable lucidity so that it will also be useful to understandable to students who are not versed in Hegelian philosophy and terminology" - Hans Kohn, The Annal of the American Academy

"A Marxian philosopher who became a hero to the student radicals of the 1960s because of his view that modern society has enslaved mankind" - The Washington Post

"Marcuse's optimism, that the alienating effect of commodification could be overcome, greatly influenced the 1960s counterculture" - The Guardian

"Marcuse's perspective on revolution is useful in assessing the insurrections of the contemporary era as it provides normative visions of a goal of total social transformation aiming at social justice and emancipation." - Douglas Kellner, author of Critical Theory, Marxism, and Modernity

"We fell in love with Marcuse's mind, his method, his scholarship. We read everything he wrote... His book on Hegel and Marx, Reason and Revolution, was high on our list because we wanted to understand the intellectual origins of revolutionary Marxism." - Dan La Botz, author of A Troublemakers' Handbook: How to Fight Back Where You Work and Win!

"In my books, I have tried to make a critique of society - and not only of capitalist society - in terms that avoid all ideology, even the socialist ideology. I have tried to show that contemporary society is a repressive society in all its aspects, that even the comfort, the prosperity, the alleged political and moral freedom, are utilised for oppressive ends."-Herbert Marcuse, The New York Times Magazine

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