Critical Theory in Adorno and Marcuse

Ruggero D’ALESSANDRO

Abstract: Critical Theory is the key-word representing all the universe of thought commonly known as “Frankfurt School”. Within it, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno and Herbert Marcuse are not so far each other, as instead are Max Horkheimer and Marcuse – considering what I in this paper define as the conservative turn of the director of the Institut für Sozialforschung. Whereas Adorno refuses any engagement in the political and lives as an obsession the theory-praxis relation, Marcuse is closer to a certain critical Marxism and to the student movements of Sixities and Seventhies. The crucial issue of the theory- praxis relation comes back clearly in the distance between Marcuse and the other two maîtres à penser, about their judgment on the ‘68 movement.

Keywords: Critical Theory, Theory/Praxis, Administered World, Student Movement, Engagement.

A laboratory of philosophi- tee that the scores be settled with cal and social criticism systems – and so to feed the hope of a World that is finally open, thus on The non-systematic nature cha- a human scale. racterizing the group of critical theo- The partners of the group deal rists associated with the Frankfurt with the pre-idealistic system and School is far from a simple, Capri- Idealism (thus, the tetralogy of Kant- cious, stylistic choice. The apho- Fichte-Schelling-Hegel), having to risms and scattered notes, the collec- consider who has been there: Marx and Schopenhauer, Weber and tion of thoughts and reflections not Nietzsche, Dilthey and Bergson, neatly categorized in a complete and Husserl and even Freud (in the sense official System reflect a very specific of a non-philosopher stricto sensu). need: the theory is not systematic Another possible explanation of thought and is a penetrating criticism the refusal of the concept of of other ways of thinking, ones that “Systems of concepts” (recalling are organized into systems. Deleuze’s definition, “to do philo- As if escaping the closed world’s sophy is to elaborate concepts”) is temptation were enough to guaran- that it occurred in the 1920s and

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1930s and thus had to grapple with and political. We allude, respecti- two worrisome, well-established vely, to his participation in the Systems: Stalin’s Soviet Union and revolutionary days in the capital, as European fascisms (Hitler and a twenty-year-old follower of Rosa Mussolini, Franco and Antonescu, Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht’s Horty and Salazar). Spartacist group in the winter of Young Adorno is educated in 1918-1919; and to his studies, some philosophy at the same Frankfurter years later, concerning perhaps the school owned by Hans Cornelius most talented philosopher of the where Horkheimer attended. Thus 20th-century: Martin Heidegger. the “odd couple” was born: on the Even with the distance, that over one hand, Horkheimer is the great time will become unbridgeable organiser and fundraiser (as we say between the two, the young Marcuse nowadays) and author in the 1930s will show evidence of the influence and 1940s of a series of articles of of the philosopher from Messkirch. great originality and depth on After all, it is like what happens to philosophers and topics of modern Hannah Arendt (even considering and contemporary philosophy,1 as the different kind of relationship well as author of a notable compen- they had). dium of aphorisms;2 on the other Interest in topics like happiness hand, Adorno is a young man, who and Epicureanism, the recovery of at the beginning, is undecided about the Hegelian System and the disco- whether to go into philosophy or very of Marx’s Economic and music, and thus whether or not to Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 are study for a year in Vienna with well documented in an intense Alban Berg and Eduard Steuermann. collection of essays dating back to Once back in Frankfurt, he the delicate turning point of the quickly obtains his teacher’s license 1920s and 1930s.3 and then throws himself headlong In Marcuse the idea of a Critical into an almost infinite series of Theory as an analysis of thought is study and interests (between theore- already present, at the same moment tical sociology and musical studies, in which it becomes intervention in psychology and psychoanalysis, praxis, even with all the historical literature and cinema). difficulties of that period (especially Unlike Horkheimer, Adorno does in those two difficult decades between not yet feel the need to produce a the World Wars and the Shoah). dizzying amount of books and The philosopher from Berlin articles, like he will in 1949 upon shows the real system of industrial return into West Germany and over and warmonger capitalism as a the following twenty years. generator of unhappiness; but at the Berliner Herbert Marcuse stands same time, he denies the eternity of out thanks to two aspects: historical such a model, siding with the change

68 Critical Theory in Adorno and Marcuse with a clearness that will never de- To join the fight or sceptical crease over the subsequent forty caution: May 1968 years. Being conscious means reflecting on evil in the world The analogy of views between (recalling Hegel’s “unhappy consci- the director, Horkheimer, and the ousness”); but humanity needs a musicologist, Adorno, of the push coming from the outside. And Institute is maintained during almost in this difference between theory fifty years of friendship. and praxis (that, according to the Synthesizing, we can identify author of Reason and Revolution, some differences between Adorno must always be in Marxian inter- and Marcuse. The latter soon action) lies, in our opinion, the point decides to stay in the United States of maximum distance between (from exile in 1934 to his death in Marcuse and Adorno, also compa- 1979), while Adorno returns to ring to the risk of recurrent paralysis Germany in 1949 (despite keeping in the theory thought up by the an academic engagement in the USA latter. It is testified also by the in 1953-1954). following quotation from 1937, in We have already talked about which Marcuse, by this time in exile Marcuse’s adhesion to the aborted in the USA, marks with great clarity revolution of workers and military the diversity between philosophy member Councils in 1918-1919; not and Critical Theory: to speak of the complicated and The truth, not beingable to be alternating relationship between realized within the existing social Adorno and the protesting students order, has in any case because of the (albeit far from justifying the squalid latter the character of a simple legend of his death caused by these utopia. This transcendence does not relationships) in 1966-1969; while speak against, but in favour of truth. the author of One-Dimensional Man The utopian element has been the rises to the role of prophet of the only progressive element of philo- juvenile revolution (pseudo-myth of sophy: such were the constructions which he himself is the first to laugh of a better State, of supreme pleasu- with amused scepticism). Moreover, re, of perfect happiness, of perpetual he keeps far from embedded peace. The obstinacy, derived from sociology (except for his participa- remaining loyal to the truth against tion in some research in the early all appearances, has today given up 1930s on the work of labourers and its place in philosophy to lavishness then on authority and family); while and wild opportunism. Critical the influential role played by Theory remains loyal to obstinacy as “Teddie” in most sociological re- the authentic quality of philoso- search between the 1940s and 1960s 4 phical thought. (from The Authoritarian Personality to the studies about company

69 POLIS atmosphere in Germany of the for example, to Habermas, who 1950s) is well known. comes to meet him in San Diego As far as the students are con- (where the author of Eros and cerned, both are great professors. If Civilisation has taught since the end Adorno is deeply respected and of the Sixties), that it is impossible feared but rarely loved (think about not to think, while admiring the sea, the clashes with the most brilliant that the world has got within itself a among his pupils, Hans-Jürgen critical hope – a phrase we find hard Krahl, student leader in 1966-1968, to imagine in Adorno’s mouth. Only or the squalid “erotic provocations” he, in fact, can subhead the collec- of some fanatical female protesters), tion of aphorisms Minima Moralia Marcuse is perfectly comfortable, with the irremediable Reflections amidst ironical glances and cigar from Damaged Life. drags, in the informal atmospheres of big American campuses, being Closure of the circle or very outspoken when it comes to irresolution of thought political positions (the unconditional support of his good pupil Angela The importance of a life horizon Davis, persecuted by the FBI and the illuminated by a liberated uncons- para-fascist California governor and cious is that it ends up building a future president, Ronald Reagan). theory that could be a productive It is question of aspects that Utopia. deeply influence the links between The study of psychoanalysis theory and praxis in the elaboration shows itself to be different through of the two German scholars’ philo- the two associates of the IfS: while sophy. in the Frankfurter, Freud appears as On the level of style, before a a ruthless inquirer of the false very subtle and at times twisted bourgeois conscious (pure ‘master inquirer of dialectic, lost in the of suspicion’ as in Ricoeur); in the ravines of post-dodecaphonic music Berliner, he is seen instead as a or in rational insanities of American bridge that helps build a horizon of capitalism, we find instead a lan- strong thought, in view of a possible guage of great clarity that does not ‘other’ society (together with Hegel renounce the irony or the strength of and Marx). political denunciation. If Adorno is The game, the creativity, the eros deeply pessimistic and marked by liberated from the constraint of the irresolution in comparing himself ‘administrated world’ becomes the with a world he indignantly rejects, core condition of feeding and gro- Marcuse frequently shines thanks to wing the ‘Great Refusal’ generation the “optimism of the unconscious”, (refusal of exploitation, injustice and at least in the phase of social move- war). Only Herbert Marcuse could ments around 1968. He confesses, write that there is more creativity in

70 Critical Theory in Adorno and Marcuse throwing a ball when children play opinion, and thus with lucid pain) in than in a scientific/industrial invention. the following trick: if theory does Consider what he wrote as a not open itself to reality like an young man already in his doctoral intervention for an “other” praxis, it dissertation entitled Der deutsche risks death by starvation; but if it Künstlerroman (The German Artist- mixes with practice like change, it is Novel): altered, losing afflatus and purity, as It is precisely the steady glance well as coherence and intensity. on human essence that becomes an Superficially, we can say: Marcuse inexorable impulse to keep the basis runs the risk of facing the sea and of radical revolution: that in the real throwing himself into it, without situation of capitalism, it is not only knowing if he will be able to swim a question of an economic or poli- or if he will drown; while Adorno tical crisis, but of a catastrophe of remains on the beach frozen by the human essence; indeed, this awa- same doubt. reness condemns ‘a priori’ to failure any reform that is purely economic ‘Between the police and the or political, and unconditionally de- mands the catastrophic suppression students, I choose the latter’ of the existing state of things through total revolution.5 Considering that it is a question We compare this passage with of documents that have only recently one of the Adorno’s aphorisms: emerged and due to the light that The mission of the dialectic is to they throw on Critical Theory’s trip healthy opinions about the protagonists, it seems valuable to us impossibility of changing the world, to link to some content from the which are cultivated by powerful Adorno-Marcuse correspondence. men who have taken their place, and The collection of letters dates back of deciphering in their proportions to 1969, or the last 7 months of the the loyal and reduced image of the author of Minima Moralia’s life. differences that have grown beyond As Raffaele Laudani explains any proportion. The dialectical reason very well, the beginning of the is unreasonableness facing dominant correspondence is constituted by the reason: just because as it refutes and notorious phone call the Institute’s 6 overcomes it, it becomes rational. director makes to the police because For Marcuse, putting into play of the students’ occupation. ‘Teddie’ the act of thinking not only does not writes to “dear Herbert” on 14 Fe- constitute a problem, but it is the bruary 1969: only gesture to begin to build up the Here the situation has again concrete Utopia of which we spoke become dramatic. An SDS group led before. by Krahl has occupied an Institute Adorno, instead, is struck as if by room refusing to leave, in spite of a Gorgon (consciously, in our three requests. We have had to call

71 POLIS the police who have arrested all episodes because “our cause (that is those who were in the room. The not only ours)” is surely “better situation is terrible in itself, but protected by rebel students than by Friedeburg, Habermas and I were police”. A declaration regarding present when it happened and we which Marcuse gets daily confirma- could check that violence was not tion “here in California”. employed […] The propaganda is In conclusion, another meaning- presenting the events in a completely ful passage is a long one from the twisted way, as if it were us who same 5 April letter in which took repressive dispositions, and not Marcuse comments on the significant the students who screamed at us to distance with Adorno, Friedeburg and keep quiet and not to tell anything Habermas (not to mention the by that had happened.7 then almost reactionary Horkheimer) We find on this occasion a scared regarding themes such as the rela- and disappointed Theodor Wiesengrund tionship between theory and praxis, Adorno because of the severing of a the building of dissent, the struggle very close relationship that had been against the late capitalist system: established with the progressive I consider there are situations, student body in 1966-1967, and thus moments, in which theory is urged in the first phase of the protest in forward by the praxis – situations in universities in West Germany. which, if theory keeps itself far from We have to say, too, that, unfor- praxis, it becomes unloyal. We tunately for his scorned master, cannot delete from the world the fact Krahl shows himself to be more that these students are influenced by resolute and less ready to dialogue us (and surely not least by you), I in comparison with the analogous am proud of this and I am ready to and better-known Rudi Dutschke in count on patricide, even if it hurts West Berlin (one of the Ernst sometimes […] We know (and they Bloch’s pupils). do too) that the situation is not Marcuse answers from San revolutionary […] But the situation Diego on 5 April, with his usual is so terrible, oppressive and hum- frankness; he does not want to iliating that the rebellion against it accept the invitation from IfS if a requires a biological and physio- meeting with the protesting students logical reaction […] this fresh air is is not foreseen too. It is clearly the not that of ‘left-wing fascism’ (a German-American sociologist’s way contradiction in terms). Is the air of siding with the students instead of that we too (or at least me) one day with the police (besides, he himself or other would like to breathe and writes, “If I have to choose […] I am surely is not that of the esta- with the students”). In a similar blishment. I discuss different pro- situation, he would not call the blems with students and I attack police in the absence of violent them if, from my point of view, they

72 Critical Theory in Adorno and Marcuse are doing silly things, playing television in the summer of that others’ game; but against their bad decisive year, it is the philosopher weapons, I would not make use of from Berlin himself, from whom worse and more terrible weapons. Lisi requested a comment on the And I would be very sorry for myself famous triad “Marx, Mao, (for us) if it would seem that I (we) Marcuse”, who smiled and answered are on the world’s side, sustaining that those who mistake him for the the mass murder in Vietnam.8 master of the student movements in the West are fools. Appendix. Which 1968?: Moreover, we have before us the Marcuse, Foucault, Deleuze case of one member of the old Frankfurt Institute for Social Research It is a well-known article which who frequently (not always) sides one of the world’s most prestigious with the radical youth – in this newspaper uses to comment on the respect analogous to literary critic situation in France at the beginning and culture sociologist Leo Löwenthal, of the spring of 1968. As early as and differently from Adorno and March, in fact, Le Monde irrespon- even more so from Horkheimer, as sibly (in hindsight) entitles a piece we have already seen. La France s’ennuie (“France is We have the passage from a bored”), which talks of wellness and radical pessimism expressed by his youth with neither problems nor most famous text (dating back to great interests. 1964, One-Dimensional Man) to the In a few weeks, the facts dispro- beginning of a certain hope with ve this short-sighted analysis with Essay on Liberation, written pre- which a good amount of intellectuals cisely just before Parisian days in side while they are engaged on a May. Marcuse is present in the th different role. Among these are two French capital for the 150 anniver- Frenchmen and a German scholar sary of Marx’s birth. s who constitute three examples that Then in the 1970 , the philo- might be interesting to briefly compare. sopher dilutes that relative optimism We have already referred to the under the weight of the repression, vanity of the presumed role of the end of the Vietnam War and the Herbert Marcuse as “the 1968 petrol-financial crisis, the withdra- prophet”. It is sufficient to consider wal into private life of many young that in more than one inquiry (made former protesters and the bloody by the same protesting students) the defeat of experiences such as that of fact emerges that his books are the Black Panthers or Weathermen. many times barely read or merely The analysis comparing the USA quoted. Besides, in a famous inter- to France is interesting; it is a view by Giovanni Lisi for the recognition that Marcuse gives on former first channel of Italian public the occasion of his speech on 23

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May at the same university where he himself is arrested because of public has taught since 1965, the sympathies shown toward the stu- University of California, San Diego: dent movement. The author of If we ask ourselves why in Histoire de la folie à l’âge classique France the student movement has will be engaged in France during found the support and sympathy of the1970s. In that decade, Foucault the population and the strategic divides his time among Vincennes support of the working class […] (where he is arrested several times while in this country it has been the by police for his support of the exact opposite, the answer cannot protesters), the foundation of GIP- but be two-fold. Groupe d’information sur les Firstly, France is not a wealthy prisons (together with Deleuze, society anymore, in the sense that Genet and others), the struggle for the living conditions of most of the migrants (as in the example of population are far beneath the Goutte d’Or) and the foundation of American standard of living. This, the extreme left wing newspaper obviously, provokes a lesser identi- Libération (together with Sartre and fication with the system […] Deleuze once again). Secondly, the political tradition Furthermore, Foucault reasons of the French workers movement starting from a different image of still survives and in large measure substance of the philosopher: […] Besides, France in just a cen- The militant intellectual now tury has experienced four revo- tries to exploit his position of aca- lutions and then there is a sort of demic prestige in order to commu- revolutionary tradition that can be nicate through the mass media provoked, rediscovered and renewed directly with public opinion – an in case of need.9 opinion that is surely not the same For almost all of May and June, as that of some years before, Michel Foucault lives in Tunis, because the 1968 movement did not where he has tenure; he stops by happen in vain.10 Paris only for a few days to discuss Regarding Gilles Deleuze, there whether or not to accept the position are no particulars to add, beyond his of director of the Institute of philo- aforementioned and passionate parti- sophy in the new Paris VIII- cipation in the same initiatives as his Vincennes University (nowadays friend Foucault. It is interesting the Saint-Denis). Thus he has got time part during the long 1989 interview to be less conscious of the police/ with Claire Parnet in which he tells student struggle, while he faces the the exhilarating scene of his much harder Tunisian reality. Not a soutenance de theses (the defence of few of his students are condemned his thesis for his PhD, which, at that to years and years of the most severe time, included two theses to present prison for political reasons; he and discuss), precisely in May 1968.

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The commission wasted time on the potentially violent students to reach argument regarding where to hold the room, but also easier for the long examination of PhD candi- professors to honourably escape; in date Deleuze: if on the ground floor the second case, it would be harder or the first floor of Sorbonne. In the both for the former to create first case, it would be easier for disorder and for the latter to escape! .

Note

1 His best essays are collected in: M. professors, present with Adorno on Horkheimer, Critical Theory: Selected that dramatic day; Hans-Jürgen Essays, Continuum International Krahl is the quoted pupil of the Publishing Group, New York, 1975. director contested in 1969. The SDS 2 Id., Dawn and Decline: Notes 1926- is the student movement gathered 1931 and 1950-1969, Continuum around the Socialist Student League, International Publishing Group, New expelled from the SPD (the Social York, 1978. Democratic Party) in 1966. 3 H. Marcuse, Marxismo e 8 Id., Corrispondenza con Adorno sul rivoluzione. Studi 1929-32, Einaudi, movimento studentesco tedesco Torino, 1975. (1969), in Id., Oltre l’uomo a una 4 Id., Filosofia e teoria critica (1937), dimensione, cit., p. 309 (my trans.). in Id., Cultura e società. Saggi di The reference to ‘leftist fascism’ is teoria critica 1933-1965, Einaudi, connected to the accusation in 1968 Torino, 1969, p. 95 (my trans.). by Habermas against the student 5 Idem, Der deutsche Künstlerroman. movement (later retracted by the Frühe Aufsätze. Schriften I, 1978, p. philosopher twenty years later): we 536 (my trans.). consider, moreover, that Horkheimer 6 Th. W. Adorno, “E par malato tutto critiques the strong student protests ciò che esiste” (1944), in Id., due to the visit in Germany of Minima moralia. Meditazioni della American Vice President Humphrey vita offesa, Einaudi, Torino, 1979, p. in 1967, thus siding with the Unites 76 (my trans.). States warmongers in Vietnam. 7 H. Marcuse, Corrispondenza con 9 Id., Impressioni sul maggio francese Adorno sul movimento studentesco e il movimento tedesco (1968), in tedesco (1969), in Id., Oltre l’uomo Id., Oltre l’uomo a una dimensione, a una dimensione. Movimenti e cit., p. 89 (my trans.). controrivoluzione preventiva – 10 R. D’Alessandro, La teoria e Scritti e interventi, R. Laudani (ed.), l’immaginazione. Sartre, Foucault, Manifestolibri, Roma, 2005, vol. 1, Deleuze e l’impegno politico 1968- pp. 307-08 (my trans.). The referen- 1978, Manifestolibri, Roma, 2010, p. ce is to Friedeburg and Habermas 68 (my trans.) regards two colleagues and full-time

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Bibliography

ADORNO W. Th., “E par malato tutto Saggi di teoria critica 1933-1965, ciò che esiste” (1944), in Id., Einaudi, Torino, 1969. Minima moralia. Meditazioni della IDEM, Der deutsche Künstlerroman. vita offesa, Einaudi, Torino, 1979, p. Frühe Aufsätze. Schriften I, 1978. 76. IDEM, „Corrispondenza con Adorno HORKHEIMER M., Critical Theory: sul movimento studentesco tedesco Selected Essays, Continuum (1969)”, in Id., Oltre l’uomo a una International Publishing Group, New dimensione. Movimenti e York, 1975. controrivoluzione preventiva – IDEM, Dawn and Decline: Notes 1926- Scritti e interventi, R. Laudani (ed.), 1931 and 1950-1969, Continuum Manifestolibri, Roma, 2005, vol. 1, International Publishing Group, New pp. 307-08. York, 1978. D’ALESSANDRO R., La teoria e MARCUSE H., Marxismo e l’immaginazione. Sartre, Foucault, rivoluzione. Studi 1929-32, Einaudi, Deleuze e l’impegno politico 1968- Torino, 1975. 1978, Manifestolibri, Roma, 2010. IDEM, „Filosofia e teoria critica” (1937), in Id., Cultura e società.