Aesthetics And Negation

There are two possibilities for the development of a technological society.One is that the world is completely controlled by technology and alienation has become the normal state of the society;the other is that a new beautiful world appears and society develops harmoniously and freely.In terms of the first possibility,Marcuse wanted to eagerly find a way to eliminate alienation,and then first studied the meaning of "negative" as a starting point on the basis of his theory.The negative social critical theory also belongs to his initial research results.In terms of the second possibility,Marcuse realized that what is more important to change society is how to build a free world on the basis of the real world,not just to eliminate alienation.The external violent revolution cannot really change the reality.To completely break the control of technological totalitarianism,we must start with consciousness.That is,to build a non-repressive civilized society through aesthetics.The formation of Marcuse’s negative aesthetic thought is driven by the negative power of aesthetic art and the beautiful construction of the art world.There are two main issues involved in Marcuse’s negative aesthetic thoughts: What is the hope of saving alienated society? What is the future of society? This article takes these two issues as clues.With the formation of Marcuse ’s theory,analyze the connotation of negative aesthetic thought from four aspects: the origin of negative aesthetic thought,negative social critical theory,negative aesthetic thought system,and negative aesthetic utopian world.Firstly,from theorigin of negative aesthetic thought.Marcuse was deeply influenced by Heidegger,Hegel,Marx,Freud,Schiller and others.Because of Heidegger’s existential philosophy,and his extraordinary attention to the state of human existence and development,Marcuse laid the foundation for the theoretical research of "people-oriented";Affected by the Negative Features in Hegel’s Dialectics,marcuse found "negativity" as his theoretical fulcrum;and combined Marx’s alienation theory with Freud’s instinct theory of love and desire to form a preliminary theory of social criticism.In addition,Influenced by German classical aestheticians represented by Schiller,Marcuse re-sensed the importance of aesthetics,hoping to liberate society with the power of aesthetics.Secondly,from the negative social critical theory.Social critical revolution is the result of Marcuse’s early exploration,which aims to save social alienation.The present situation of political,economic and cultural alienation reveals the whole alienation of society.Starting from the negative thinking of the individual,the instinct of love desire and the alienation of labor,it criticizes the suppression of the individual by the capital society;based on the exhaustive alienation of society and the individual,Marcuse proposed a negative revolution and opened up a way to liberate love,culture,and thinking for existing reality.Thirdly,from the negative aesthetic thought system.Negative social critical revolution failed to make the negative force act on the alienated society,and aesthetic art,as a bridge between negative forces and revolution,protected the existence of negative revolutionary forces.Due to the external language,aesthetic form and inner heterogeneity,self-discipline,art can be independent of alienated society.The influence of aesthetic art on ideology can break the control of reason and endow society with new sensibility.In short,the path of salvation sought by Marcuse’s negative aesthetic thought is aesthetic art.Lastly,Only in the aesthetic utopia can the negative aesthetic thought system be best accomplished,and the system’s ultimate goal is to construct a free and liberated artistic new society.Because of the art world is full of happiness,joy,and freedom,and a utopia constructed with beauty as the standard.In other words,Marcuse hopes that the art world can be projected into the future reality.Whereas,aesthetic utopia not only reflects Marcuse’s humanistic care,but also the flaw of its theory.