A Study on Authority

by Herbert Marcuse

The great theorist of radical liberation analyzes the relationship between authority and freedom.

This is the first paperback edition of what is now recognized as Marcuse’s most important collection of writings on philosophy. He analyzes and attacks some of the main intellectual currents of European thoughts from the Reformation to the Cold War. In a survey that includes Luther, Calvin, Kant, Burke, Hegel and Bergson, he shows how certain concepts of authority and liberty are constant elements in their very different systems. The book also contains Marcuse’s famous response to Karl Popper’s Poverty of Historicism, and his critique of Sartre.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction, Sociology, Theory, Essays, Society

112 pages, paper

First published January 17, 2008

About the author

German-Jewish philosopher, political theorist and sociologist, and a member of the Frankfurt School. Celebrated as the "Father of the New Left", his best known works are Eros and Civilization, One-Dimensional Man and The Aesthetic Dimension. Marcuse was a major intellectual influence on the New Left and student movements of the 1960s.

Reviews

[Mohammad Mahdi Fallah · Rating 5 out of 5]

درباب اقتدار مارکوزه مجموعه از جستارهایی است که او از جنبش اصلاح دینی تا جریان های متاخر مارکسیستی به منظور تببین چگونگی شکل گیری اقتدار در ساختارهای نظری دنبال می کند.
کتاب مملوء از نکات جذاب است، هرچند ساختارهای منسجمی ندارد و به جز تاکیداتی که پیرامون انقلاب فرانسه و تاثیر آن بر کانت و هگل دارد از وجه انضمامی ساخت اقتدار غافل مانده است.
به هر حال کتاب مارکوزه حقیقتا صرفا "درباب" اقتدار است و تشریح چگونگی اقتدار و استقرار آن شاید، نیاز بر دقت در زوایای پنهان دیگری هم داشته باشد.

[Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's dense, as critical theory often is, but an interesting examination on the ways that early modernist and Lutheran thought conceptualised and justified authority all the way up to Marxism and contemporary fascism (which for Marcuse was in the 30s). It doesn't have a definitive conclusion, so it reads more as a series of examinations that build on top of one another, but the later chapters are more or less independent of the previous analyses. The most difficult sections were on Hegel, but that is a given considering I myself haven't read the big man himself, so its easy to get lost in Marcuse's prose. Whilst it is very precise and very deliberate, don't hesitate to take a breather so that the concepts make more sense. Despite being a reasonably short essay, it isn't a light read by any means. Highly recommend it to anyone interested in the modern philosophy of authority and to any fans of critical theory in general.

[caprice]

A study on Authority, A short introduction to the very structural framework of the Authority and how it's formation is interconnected within every transcending new order. Protestantism as the central movement to develop the bourgeois theory of freedom, property relations and especially the family. The book reiterates the basis of the movements and tries to penetrate through the events by bringing a psychoanalytical approach. As Marcuse himself was a great Freudian. The rigour Neo-Kantian ethics to Hegel's philosophy of right. Marcuse gives these texts a very symptomatic yet philosophical reading.
Marx's construction for a social revolution to subvert the existing social relationships between Labour and Capital is precisely
re — illustrated/examined here.

[Thomas Fackler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Traces modern (1936) authoritarianism through Protestant ideology, Kantian secularization of that ideology, on to Hegel's state philosophy, and finally shaped by Marx into its dualistic liberal or fascist possibilities.

[Avşar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this book is above my perception grade.

[TimD · Rating 3 out of 5]

The section on Luther and Calvin was good

[Differengenera · Rating 4 out of 5]

surprisingly straightforward, disciplined and quite helpful reading of authority as figured in Martin Luther, Calvin, Kant, Hegel and Marx.

[pello · Rating 4 out of 5]

das razões da autoridade à autoridade da razão e de volta à autoridade.

à primeira vista um texto puramente enumerativo, mas o enumerado é revelador. o ponto de partida é claro:

"A doutrina da liberdade de Kant é apenas a expressão mais clara e elevada de uma tendência vigente desde o escrito de Lutero sobre a liberdade do cristão."

o que se segue são variações em torno da desativação da práxis: se o sujeito moderno é negação de sua obra, a autoridade só pode ser em-geral.

"A doutrina cristã da liberdade transfere a libertação do homem para antes de sua história real que, então, como história de sua não-liberdade, é uma 'eterna' consequência dessa libertação."

é só por sermos propriamente livres que podemos ser impropriamente não-livres. lutero leva isso ao paroxismo:

"Exatamente onde ele é livre nada pode fazer, e onde é servo deve fazer toda sorte de coisas."

depois de hegel, no entanto, voltamos à autoridade. desde a seção sobre contrarrevolução e restauração sentimos marcuse mais próximo da eclosão da guerra que da revolução francesa, e salta a veia da teoria crítica que conhecemos.

um ensaio importante.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a good history of the legitimation of authority from Luther and Calvin up to Kant and Hegel. Best read alongside 'On Hedonism' in the Negations volume, which works on the reverse problem.