Marcuse’s Theory Of Technological Alienation And Its Contemporary Enlightenment

Technology,in Marx’s view,has always been a preparation for human emancipation.Since the beginning of the first industrial Revolution,science,with its powerful constructive force,has promoted the transformation of human production and life style and promoted the advance and development of human civilization.However,the destructive power of science and technology also gradually emerged,such as the enslavement and repression of human beings by technology,the extensive use of scientific and technological weapons,and so on.This destructive power is more prominent in the developed capitalist industrial society.In this regard,a group of advanced Western scholars have carried out persistent and systematic research,especially Marcuse’s theory of technological alienation.Marcuse lived in a prosperous period of scientific development.Natural sciences represented by physics,chemistry and biology gradually formed a complete theoretical and disciplinary system of knowledge,and achieved unprecedented achievements in theoretical inventions,realizing comprehensive changes in social life.In addition to the mechanization of production and the great enrichment and satisfaction of life material materials,this reform also brought negative phenomena such as "false consumption" and broken civilization.People lost their critical negative thinking and became one-way people,and the society also became "one-way".In this regard,Marcuse launched a fierce criticism of the phenomenon of developed capitalist society on the basis of inherits Marx’s labor alienation theory,Heidegger’s existentialism philosophy,Horkheimer and Aldonno’s enlightenment critical theory and Freud’s psychoanalysis theory.Marcuse points out that the reason for technological alienation lies in the fact that technology has become a rational and controls the whole society,and believes that human liberation can be realized by reconstructing technological rationality and eros.Marcuse’s interpretation of the theory of technological alienation not only realized the inheritance and development of the Theory of Marxist alienation,but also showed his strong criticism of the developed capitalist industrial society,which had an important influence on the theoretical thinking of later scholars.However,we can also see the limitations of Marcuse’s theory of technological alienation are quite obvious,mainly reflected in three aspects: the new revolutionary theory proposed by Marcuse is obviously utopian,one-sided exaggerated the negative impact of technology,and the criticism of the developed capitalist industrial society is not thorough enough.Based on this,in the face of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation,we should establish a comprehensive and scientific outlook on science and technology,always adhere to the Marxist view of science and technology,correctly grasp the new needs of China’s scientific and technological development in the new era,and boost the high-quality,rapid development and innovation of science and technology.