One-dimensional person

Author: (American) Herbert Marcuse, translated by Liu Ji
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: Herbert Marcuse (1918-1979) was a key figure in the left wing of the Frankfurt School. This book is his most celebrated work, aimed at revealing the totalitarian characteristics of contemporary advanced industrial societies. After its publication in the UK and the US, it was subsequently translated into German and French, and later into multiple languages for publication in many countries, becoming known as the textbook for the Western student rebellion movement of the late 1960s. The book, excluding the introduction, consists of three parts: "One-Dimensional Society," "One-Dimensional Thought," and "The Opportunity for Alternative Choices." Through analysis and critique of politics, life, thought, culture, language, and other fields, the author points out how developed industrial societies have successfully suppressed the negative, critical, and transcendent dimensions within people, transforming the society into a one-dimensional one and its inhabitants into one-dimensional individuals. Such individuals lose their freedom and creativity, no longer imagining or pursuing a life different from the real one. This book provides a profound exposure and exploration of modern capitalist society but reveals the utopian nature of its social critique theory. It holds significant theoretical value for studying the development of the Frankfurt School and Marcuse's theories.