Ivory Tower and Barricades: Marcuse and Adorno on the Separation of Theory and Praxis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2298/FID2002220VKljučne reči:
Marcuse, Adorno, Horkheimer, Krahl, correspondence, critical theory, praxis, actionism, 1968, 1969, student movements, Frankfurt SchoolApstrakt
The events of 1968/69 initiated a dispute between Adorno and Marcuse over the (alleged) separation of theory and praxis. While Marcuse “stood at the barricades” Adorno sought recluse in the “ivory tower”. Marcuse and German students perceived Adorno’s move as departure from fundamental postulates of critical theory as laid down in Horkheimer’s 1937 essay. Adorno died amidst the process of clarifying his differences with Marcuse and thus the “unlimited discussions” between the two remain unfinished. This paper sets to examine how both Marcuse and Adorno remained dedicated to the unity of theory and praxis, albeit in different ways. I argue that Adorno did not separate theory and praxis; instead, he perceived the gap between critical theory and concrete historical situation. Adorno rejected simple and unreflective translation of theory into praxis. Hence his attempt to recalibrate critical theory. Marcuse’s and Adorno’s differences lie in their different evaluation of the student movement and this (mis)evaluation was context related. My second argument is that Marcuse/Adorno disagreement is partly caused by the absence of the two from the concrete historical context.
Reference
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Wheatland, Thomas (2009), The Frankfurt School in Exile. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
—. (2001), Problems of Moral Philosophy, ed. by T. Schröder, transl. by R. Livingstone. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
—. (2000), Introduction to Sociology, ed. by C. Gödde, transl. by E. Jephcott. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
—. (1998), Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords, transl. by H. W. Pickford. New York: Columbia University Press.
—. (1989), “Society”, in Critical Theory and Society: A Reader, ed. by D. M. Kellner and S. E. Bronner, New York and London: Routledge, pp. 267–275.
—. (1973), Negative Dialectics, transl. by E. B. Ashton. London and New York: Routledge.
Adorno, Theodor W. and Gerhard Richter (2002a), “Who’s Afraid of the Ivory Tower? A Conversation with Theodor W. Adorno”, Monatshefte 94(1): 10–23.
Adorno, Theodor W. and Herbert Marcuse (1999), “Correspondence on the German Student Movement”, New Left Review 233: 123–136.
Adorno, Theodor W. and Max Horkheimer (2010), “Towards a New Manifesto?” New Left Review 65 (2010): 32–61.
—. (2002b), Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments, transl. by E. Jephcott. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Anderson, Kevin (1933), “On Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory: A Critical Appreciation of Herbert Marcuse’s Reason and Revolution, Fifty Years Later”, Sociological Theory 11(3): 243–267.
Bascelli, Renata (2018), Per una filosofia concreta: alle radici del pensiero di Marcuse. Manchester: Clinamen.
Davis, Angela Y. (2005), “Marcuse’s Legacies”, in The New Left and the 1960s: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse Vol. III, ed. by D. Kellner, London and New York: Routledge, pp. vii-xiv.
Freyenhagen, Fabian (2014), “Adorno’s Politics: Theory and Praxis in Germany’s 1960s”, Philosophy & Social Criticism 40(9): 1–43.
Goltz, Anna von der (2017), “Other ‘68ers in West Berlin: Christian Democratic Students and the Cold War City”, Central European History 50: 86–112.
Horkheimer, Max (2004), Eclipse of Reason. London and New York: Continuum.
—. (2002), Critical Theory: Selected Essays, transl. by M. J. O’Connell et al. New York: The Continuum Publishing Company.
Jay, Martin (1973) The Dialectical Imagination: A History of the Frankfurt School and the Institute of Social Research 1923-1950. London: Heinemann.
Jeffries, Stuart (2016) Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School. London and New York: Verso.
Kellner, Douglas (1964), Introduction to One-Dimensional Man, London and New York: Routledge.
Krahl, Hans-Jürgen (1975), “The Political Contradiction in Adorno’s Critical Theory.” The Sociological Review 23(4): 831–834.
Kraushaar, Wolfgang (ed.) (1998), Frankfurter Schule und Studentenbewegung: von der Flaschenpost zum Molotowcocktail 1964 bis 1995. Hamburg: Rogner & Bernhard.
Leslie, Esther (1999), “Introduction to Adorno/Marcuse Correspondence on the German Student Movement”, New Left Review 233(1): 118–122.
Macdonald, Bradley J. (2018), “Adorno and Marcuse at the Barricades? Critical Theory, Scholar-Activism, and the Neoliberal University”, New Political Science 40(3): 528–541.
—. (2017), “Traditional and Critical Theory Today: Toward a Critical Political Science”, New Political Science (2017): 1–12.
Marcuse, Herbert. (2009) [1937], “Philosophy and Critical Theory”, in Negations: Essays in Critical Theory, transl. by J. J. Shapiro, London: MayFly Books, pp. 99–117.
—. (2009) [1936], “The Concept of Essence” in Negations: Essays in Critical Theory, pp. 31–65.
—. (2005) [1929], “On Concrete Philosophy”, in Heideggerian Marxism, ed. by J. Abromeit and R. Wolin, Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, pp. 34–53.
—. (2005) [1933], “On the Philosophical Foundations of the Concept of Labor in Economics.” in Heideggerian Marxism, pp. 122–151.
—. (1986), Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory. London: Routledge.
—. (1970) [1965], “Repressive Tolerance”, in H. Marcuse, B. Moore and R. P. Wolff, A Critique of Pure Tolerance. Boston: Beacon Press, pp. 81–117.
—. (1964), One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. London and New York: Routledge.
—. (1955), Eros and Civilization: Philosophical Inquiry into Freud. Boston: Beacon Press.
Marx, Karl (1995), Capital, Vol. 1, online version available at marxist.org.
Negt, Oskar (1974), Die Konstituierung der Soziologie zur Ordnungswissenschaft: Strukturbeziehungen zwischen den Gesellschaftslehren Comtes und Hegels. Frankfurt: Europäische Verlagsanstalt.
Siegel, Elke (2012), “The Returns of Herbert Marcuse”, in E. Goebel and S. Weigel (eds.), “Escape to Life”. German Intellectuals in New York: A Compendium on Exile after 1933, Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter, pp. 391–413.
Sünker, Heinz (2007), “Foundations of Critical Theory: On the History of the Frankfurt School”, International Sociology 22(2): 129–137.
Višić, Maroje (2017), Kritika i otpor: osnovne crte kritičke filozofije Herberta Marcusea. Zagreb: Naklada Breza.
Wheatland, Thomas (2009), The Frankfurt School in Exile. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.
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2020-06-28
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Višić, M. (2020) „Ivory Tower and Barricades: Marcuse and Adorno on the Separation of Theory and Praxis“, Filozofija i društvo/Philosophy and Society. Belgrade, Serbia, 31(2), стр. 220–241. doi: 10.2298/FID2002220V.
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