Critical Theory in Adorno and Marcuse 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 67 POLIS 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).