The Problem of Historicity in Marcuse’s early Work

• Main Author: José Manuel Romero Cuevas
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad Pontificia Comillas 2013-11-01
• Series: Pensamiento. Revista de Investigación e Información Filosófica
• Subjects: historicidad, hermenéutica, teoría crítica, Heidegger, Marcuse
• Online Access: https://revistas.upcomillas.es/index.php/pensamiento/article/view/2000

Between 1928 and 1932, H. Marcuse tried to habilitate under M. Heidegger at the University of Freiburg. During these years Marcuse connected important ideas from Heidegger and Marx in his writings. In his approximation to Heidegger, the young Marcuse focused on the concept of historicity laid down in Being and time, where the Berliner thinker believed he had found a cause for rethinking the philosophical basis of historical materialism. This article exposes the tense process of critique and appropriation by which Marcuse realized his coming to terms with Heidegger’s concept of historicity. It exposes how Marcuse’s later evolution towards the Critical Theory of M. Horkheimer was based on determinate aspects of this consideration and also that Marcuse’s evolution was only possible through his gradual estrangement from Heidegger’s ontological conception of historicity.