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Hegel Reframed: Marcuse on the Dialectic of Social Transformation

Jeffry Ocay

Discipline: Philosophy

 

Abstract:

The prevalence of social pathologies in contemporary societies has triggered many critical theorists to challenge or even disrupt the status quo in the hope for a better society. Thus, the notion of social transformation or, better yet, emancipation has become one of the central themes in critical social theory. This paper aims to contribute to this scholarship through an exposition of Herbert Marcuse’s attempt to socialize Georg Hegel’s ontology. In particular, this paper aims to show how Marcuse explains the possibility of social transformation by appropriating key concepts in Hegel’s huge philosophical system, most particularly from Hegel’s Logic and The phenomenology of mind.