Hannah Arendt and Herbert Marcuse’s Critique of Modernity

Abstract

The article is devoted to comparative analysis of the critique of modernity put forth by two prominent Western thinkers of 20-th century – Hannah Arendt and Herbert Marcuse. The author contends that despite belonging to different philosophical schools both thinkers provided a thoughtful critique of the modern society in the same spirit of its negative consequences for the individual freedom of man. For both Arendt and Marcuse human freedom is the utmost value that has been deprived in the modern society. Both thinkers treat man as an imminently social being, therefore for them the search of the way for restoration of the individual freedom is intricately related with the radical changing of the society. Arendt developed a peculiar teaching that human freedom is available only in the public realm of political action that has been suppressed in the modern society and contended that the restoration of the freedom is possible only by emancipation of the political realm from the captivity of the underlying social areas of production of means of living and cultural objects. As for Marcuse he proceeded in Hegelian-Marxian tradition and for him the regaining of individual freedom was related with total revolutionary change of the society in the direction of the future project set up by enlightened reason. Marcuse admits the encapsulation of modern society and elimination of the social subjects of the historical changes (classes), therefore he suggests that the resistance to the oppressive nature of modern society (where no one is free) shall be implemented on the level of individual consciousness through conscious adoption of the dissent ideas.