Critique On Modern Civilization

Marcuse is a core member of Frankfurt school, an important representative of Neo - Freudism. His thought is derived from Heidegger's existentialist philosophy, the young Marx's works, Hegel's thought of speculative philosophy and Freud ' s works. On the basis of their thought, he criticizes on modern civilization, including the repression on human nature exerted over by material civilization, the inverse ratio between the scientific development and human nature, and the contradiction between the technological civilization and the environment of hu-manization. Accordingly, Marcuse's ethical theory consists of three aspects, that is, the theory of the alienation of human nature, of the alienation of technology, and of the ecological crisis.In the first aspect, from Freud's doctrine, Marcuse puts forward a view--eros is human essence, and regards it as the theoretical foundation of his ethical thought. He points out that modern civilization is of repression which falls into two types: basic repression and surplus-repression. Modern civilization does not make eros repression alleviated or eradicated, but make man deeply fall into the following alienation: first, the alienation of labor division, which leads laborers to become the implements; secondly, the alienation of man's motive for labor, which results in the alienation of labor property. Apparently, in the eye of Marcuse, the repression on human nature exerted over by material civilization is an additional one. Thus, he holds it that the only way for con-temporary human beings to emancipate themselves is to establish a civilized society with liberated eros. He not only demonstrates the necessity and feasibility for eros liberation, but also describes such a civilization, i. e. , a society with liberated eros would be a combination of morals, aesthetic enjoyment and eros as well.In the second aspect, Marcuse broadly criticizes that the contem-parary technology has turned out to be a new control form and a new ideology. First, the technological rationality brings about the political rationality. With the development of technology, in the political field, the divergence between the opposites obviously tends to be eliminated. Based on that, a new view on class struture is put forward, that the capitalism undertakes its exploitation in the disguise of rationality, and that the working class has been undergoing a decisive transformation. Secondly, science and technology result in that freedom becomes a ruling means. Marcuse holds it that contemporary capitalist state machine imposes their economic and political needs on the freedom of people by means of technology, especially by manufacturing artificial demands. Thirdly, science and technology cause culture to be industrialized. This makes the critic and negative function of culture vanish, culture a commercial product, and the distance between the ideal and actuality in culture disappeared. As a result, the cultural industrialization gradually makes common awareness take an obedient and non- critical attitude to the reality. Finally, science and technology harass man's activity of value, seperating science from value. Although Marcuse take note to the negative efffects of science and technology, he is also aware of their great function in thefuture. He puts forward a new view on technology, that is, both the endof technology progress and the technological form itself must be changed, so that science and technology can get rid of their alienation.In the third aspect, Marcuse exposes the ecological crisis caused by conlemparary capitalist civilization, which is, in essence, the crisis of politics, of the system and of the social structure in the capitalist society. He also puts forward a solution to the ecological crisis, namely, the humanitarian possession of nature, which requires to return beauty to the nature, and to make full use of natural resourses in a planned way, so as to satisfy the fundamental needs. He also expounds the relationship between the emancipation of man...