Eros and Civilization

Eros and Civilization PDF

Author: Herbert Marcuse

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 1135863717

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this classic work, Herbert Marcuse takes as his starting point Freud's statement that civilization is based on the permanent subjugation of the human instincts, his reconstruction of the prehistory of mankind - to an interpretation of the basic trends of western civilization, stressing the philosophical and sociological implications.

Eros and Civilization

Eros and Civilization PDF

Author: Herbert Marcuse

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-09-28

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 1000966739

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Hailed as the 'Guru of the New Left' and a leading figure of 1960s counterculture and liberation movements, the philosopher Herbert Marcuse is amongst the most renowned and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century. Eros and Civilization is one of his best-known books and brought him international fame. Taking his cue from Freud's view that repression of the instincts is a defining characteristic of the human mind, Marcuse fuses Freud's insight with Marx's theories of alienation and oppression. He argues that rather than our instincts turned in on themselves, it is modern capitalism itself that is preventing us from reaching the freedom we can find in a non-repressive society. A sweeping indictment of modern capitalism and consumerism that remains fresh and insightful, Eros and Civilization is a classic of activist and radical thinking that continues to fire debate and controversy today. This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Douglas Kellner.

Eros

Eros PDF

Author: Bruce S Thornton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-02-12

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 042998040X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality is a controversial book that lays bare the meanings Greeks gave to sex. Contrary to the romantic idealization of sex dominating our culture, the Greeks saw eros as a powerful force of nature, potentially dangerous, and in need of control by society: Eros the Destroyer, not Cupid the Insipid, fired the Greek imagination.The destructiveness of eros can be seen in Greek imagery and metaphor, and in the Greeks' attitudes toward women and homosexuals. Images of love as fire, disease, storms, insanity, and violence?Top 40 song clichfor us?locate eros among the unpredictable and deadly forces of nature. The beautiful Aphrodite embodies the alluring danger of sex, while femmes fatales like Pandora and Helen represent the risky charms of female sexuality. And homosexuality typifies for the Greeks the frightening power of an indiscriminate appetite that threatens the stability of culture itself.In Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality, Bruce Thornton offers a uniquely sweeping and comprehensive account of ancient sexuality free of currently fashionable theoretical jargon and pretentions. In its conclusions the book challenges the distortions of much recent scholarship on Greek sexuality. And throughout it links the wary attitudes of the Greeks to our present-day concerns about love, sex, and family. What we see, finally, are the origins of some of our own views as well as a vision of sexuality that is perhaps more honest and mature than our own dangerous illusions.

One-Dimensional Man

One-Dimensional Man PDF

Author: Herbert Marcuse

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-11

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 113443880X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

One of the most important texts of modern times, Herbert Marcuse's analysis and image of a one-dimensional man in a one-dimensional society has shaped many young radicals' way of seeing and experiencing life. Published in 1964, it fast became an ideological bible for the emergent New Left. As Douglas Kellner notes in his introduction, Marcuse's greatest work was a 'damning indictment of contemporary Western societies, capitalist and communist.' Yet it also expressed the hopes of a radical philosopher that human freedom and happiness could be greatly expanded beyond the regimented thought and behaviour prevalent in established society. For those who held the reigns of power Marcuse's call to arms threatened civilization to its very core. For many others however, it represented a freedom hitherto unimaginable.

The Essential Marcuse

The Essential Marcuse PDF

Author: Herbert Marcuse

Publisher: Beacon Press

Published: 2007-03-01

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780807014332

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The Essential Marcuse provides an overview of Herbert Marcuse's political and philosophical writing over four decades, with excerpts from his major books as well as essays from various academic journals. The most influential radical philosopher of the 1960s, Marcuse's writings are noteworthy for their uncompromising opposition to both capitalism and communism. His words are as relevant to today's society as they were at the time they were written.

Perversion and Utopia

Perversion and Utopia PDF

Author: Joel Whitebook

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 1996-10-31

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780262731171

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this sweeping challenge to the postmodern critiques of psychoanalysis, Joel Whitebook argues for a reintegration of Freud's uncompromising investigation of the unconscious with the political and philosophical insights of critical theory. Perversion and Utopia follows in the tradition of Herbert Marcuse's Eros and Civilization and Paul Ricoeur's Freud and Philosophy. It expands on these books, however, because of the author's remarkable grasp not only of psychoanalytic studies but also of the contemporary critical climate; Whitebook, a philosopher and a psychoanalyst, writes with equal facility on both Habermas and Freud. A central thesis of Perversion and Utopia is that there is an essential affinity between the utopian impulse and the perverse impulse, in that both reflect a desire to bypass the reality principle that Freud claimed to define the human condition. The book explores the positive and negative aspects of the relationship between these impulses, which are ubiquitous features of human life, and the requirements of civilized social existence. Whitebook steers a course between orthodox psychoanalytic conservatism, which seeks simply to repress the perverse-utopian impulse in the name of social continuity and cohesion, and those forms of Freudo-Marxism, postmodernism, and psychoanalytic feminism that advocate its direct and full expression in the name of emancipation. While he demonstrates the limitations of the current textual approaches to Freud, especially those influenced by Lacan, Whitebook also enlists the lessons of psychoanalysis to counteract the excessive rationalism of the Habermasian brand of critical theory, thus making a substantial contribution to current discussions within critical theory itself. His analysis and interpretation of perversion, narcissism, sublimation, and ego bring new insight to these central and thorny issues in Freud, and his discussions of Adorno, Marcuse, Castoriadis, Habermas, Ricoeur, Lacan, and others are equally penetrating.

On Marcuse

On Marcuse PDF

Author: Douglas Kellner

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 908790519X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Herbert Marcuse was one of the most important and renowned philosophers of the 20th century. His thought and his involvement in global student movements played a decisive role in transforming the political landscape of the 60’s and 70’s in the United States. For many he is remembered as the father of the so-called New Left, a figure who represented theoretical clarity through the fog of war, counterrevolution, and the repression of freedom in advanced industrial society.

Counterrevolution and Revolt

Counterrevolution and Revolt PDF

Author: Herbert Marcuse

Publisher: Beacon Press

Published: 2010-07-01

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 0807096563

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In this book Herbert Marcuse makes clear that capitalism is now reorganizing itself to meet the threat of a revolution that, if realized, would be the most radical of revolutions: the first truly world-historical revolution. Capitalism's counterrevolution, however, is largely preventive, and in the Western world altogether preventive. Yet capitalism is producing its own grave-diggers, and Marcuse suggests that their faces may be very different from those of the wretched of the earth. The future revolution will be characterized by its enlarged scope, for not only the economic and political structure, not only class relatoins, but also humanity's relation to nature (both human and external nature) tend toward radical transformation. For the author, the "liberation of nature" is the connecting thread between the economic-political and the cultural revolution, between "changing the world" and personal emancipation.

Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism

Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism PDF

Author: Douglas Kellner

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1984-01-01

Total Pages: 528

ISBN-13: 9780520051768

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book provides a critical overview of the entirety of Marcuse s work and discusses his enduring importance. Kellner had extensive interviews with Marcuse and provides hitherto unknown information about his road to Marxism, his relations with Heidegger and Existentialism, his involvement with the Frankfurt School, and his reasons for appropriating Freud in the 1950s. In addition Kellner provides a novel interpretation of the genesis and structure of Marcuse s theory of one-dimensional society, of the development of his political theory, and of the role of aesthetics in his critical theory."