An Analysis Of Marcuse 's New Theory Of Sensibility

This paper is trying to state some important aspects of the new sensibility, making it more clear that Marcus did his best to reconcile reason and sensibility, subject and object. Marcus thought that today we did not believe in teleological substances; instead, scientific reason offered mechanical explanations of the world. Marcus thought we were controlled by technology reason. In One-Dimensional Man, Marcus said that technology controlled the human beings, actually, in Eros and Civilization, Marcus put forward a similar problem, he used the rationality of domination to show the existing reality principle lead to the reification of human beings.The new sensibility has a big difference from the old sensibility. Old sensibility was treated as the elementary source of cognition, and needed to be rearranged by reason, thus it was in a low level. Marcus thought the conception of old sensibility was related with the domination system. The existing reality principle leaded to the oppressiveness of sensibility. The new sensibility, Marcus proposed, was trying to reconcile reason and sensibility. Marcus’s new sensibility included eros, imagination, aesthetics, and art. Marcus different from the orthodox Marxists thought that human beings could be changed by aesthetics, then established a new social order.Marcus thought that under the capitalism, humans saw things with technical apriori, thus nature was treated as raw materials without potentials and values. Marcus realized it was not the problem of technology itself, but the capitalism, he claimed an alternative apriori which would fulfill the telos of technology and the potentials of the objects. Then the question was how to get the apriori. Marcus saw the possibility in Kant’s aesthetics which had a principle called "purposiveness without purpose". Marcus thought purposiveness in this sense as a purely formal property of self-organizing objects. It arose from freedom according to its own intrinsic nature. That meant aesthetic form was the principle Marcus looked for. Marcus claimed that the end of aesthetics was the realization of freedom beyond aesthetics. In Eros and Civilization, Marcus discussed the function of the aesthetic form in constructing a new experience, and by applying Schiller’s aesthetic theory, he elaborated the aesthetic function of political practice. In the Aesthetic Dimension, Marcus moved further to discuss the subjectivity and realization of the new reality.The theoretical contribution of Marcus’s new sensibility is that new sensibility affirms the position of sensibility. In modern western philosophy, the relationship between subject and object was divided, however, new sensibility makes sensibility never controlled by reason. Secondly, new sensibility expands the scope of sensibility. Marcus’s new sensibility not just refers to sense organs or desire, but also the relationship between the sensibility and aesthetics and arts. At last, new sensibility initiates a new way to change the society. Marcus thought sensibility through aesthetics and arts achieved a new society without oppression.We can see the see the contribution of new sensibility, but at the same time, we have to realize the problems in the theory. Marcus in the theory of new sensibility did not propose a concrete way to change the society. He just said that new sensibility could make new humans, and new humans could change the world. But he never put forward a concrete way to change it.