A Comparative Study Of Marcuse And Marx's View Of Science And Technology

In today’s world,science and technology has increasingly penetrated into all fields of social development and human progress.It has become a recognized visual focus.In the face of the ever-changing science and technology,how should human beings view and treat it correctly? As a great teacher of mankind,Marx’s view of science and technology scattered in his works from generation to generation has left valuable enlightenment for later generations.As one of the most important schools of Marxism in foreign countries,Frankfurt School has never neglected the continuous discussion of science and technology in the process of delving into Marx’s vast thought.Under the new historical conditions,Marcuse,the representative figure,not only inherited Marx’s critical spirit,but also absorbed the thoughts of others,and put forward his unique view of science and technology,which also gave enlightenment to later generations.Although the domestic and foreign research on Marcuse’s or Marx’s views of science and technology is more fruitful,but the comparative study of the two is not common,so this paper attempts to comb and compare Marcuse’s and Marx’s views of science and technology more comprehensively and systematically,hoping to contribute to the academic research.The formation of Marcuse’s and Marx’s views on science and technology can not be separated from the specific social and historical background,but because they lived in different ages,this paper first compares the economic,political and scientific and cultural backgrounds in society of their views.It is found that the differences between the achievements of industrial revolution and the development stages of capitalism lead to the differences in their cognitive style and critical strength of science and technology,while the changes of social ruling style and class struggle cause the differences in their revolutionary desire and revolutionary ideas.The different development of natural science and Humanities and Social sciences also make their theories have different supports.After that,according to the framework of“standpoint-viewpoint-method”,this paper compares Marcuse’s and Marx’s views on science and technology from three aspects of philosophy,politics and ethics.It holds that Marcuse’s views on science and technology are full of idealism and its humanistic position is essentially bourgeois humanitarianism.Marcuse’s views on science and technology,which focuses on criticizing “technological rationality” under the discourse paradigm of “technological determinism” represents the interests of bourgeois left and what it wants to build is a “non-repressive civilized society”.However,from the standpoint of historical materialism and scientific humanism,Marx criticizes the capitalist system under the discourse paradigm of “technological holism”.His views on science and technology represents the interests of proletariat and wants to establish a communist society.Then,this paper focuses on the theoretical viewpoints of Marcuse’s and Marx’s views of science and technology,thinking that the connotation of science and technology in their works is different from “stability”and “change”,the essence of science and technology is divided into “ideological essence” and “productivity essence”,and the value standpoint of science and technology is the opposition of “non-neutrality” and “neutrality”.Even though they all agree that science and technology has a certain function on nature,society and human beings,Marcuse mostly interprets its negative influence,while Marx praises it more than depreciates it.On the issue of alienation of science and technology,Marcuse thinks that it is the alienation in all fields of society,rooted in the extra repression of Eros,while Marx regards it as the alienation rooted in the capitalist mode of production and concentrated in the field of production,so the subjects and ways of sublating alienation proposed by them are also different.Finally,this paper points out the reasons for the above-mentioned differences or opposites between Marcuse’s and Marx’s views on science and technology.In addition to their different life backgrounds and theoretical positions,they also use different research methods when forming their respective theoretical views.Marcuse uses the methods of “social critical theory” and “negative dialectics”,and embodies the kinds of psychological analysis and ideological criticism.What Marx uses are historical materialism and materialist dialectics,and he embodies the kinds of social analysis and political economy criticism.At the end of the paper,the author makes a simple summary and evaluation of Marcuse’s and Marx’s views on science and technology,and thinks that it is not necessary to tangle in the issue of “which theory to choose”,but rather“accept all rivers” and “learn from each other’s strong points”.At the same time,the author also puts forward his own views on the controversial issues.