Heideggerian Marxism (european Horizons) [Paperback]

The Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse (18981979) studied with Martin Heidegger at Freiburg University from 1928 to 1932 and completed a dissertation on Hegels theory of historicity under Heideggers supervision. During these years, Marcuse wrote a number of provocative philosophical essays experimenting with the possibilities of Heideggerian Marxism. For a time he believed that Heideggers ideas could revitalize Marxism, providing a dimension of experiential concreteness that was sorely lacking in the German Idealist tradition. Ultimately, two events deterred Marcuse from completing this program: the 1932 publication of Marxs early economic and philosophical manuscripts, and Heideggers conversion to Nazism a year later. Heideggerian Marxism offers rich and fascinating testimony concerning the first attempt to fuse Marxism and existentialism.

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These essays offer invaluable insight concerning Marcuses early philosophical evolution. They document one of the centurys most important Marxist philosophers attempting to respond to the crisis of Marxism: the failure of the European revolution coupled with the growing repression in the USSR. In response, Marcuse contrived an imaginative and original theoretical synthesis: existential Marxism.