Marcuse's Affirmation: Nietzsche and the Logos of Gratification

The gaya scienza and the aesthetic ethos: Marcuse's appropriation of Nietzsche in An Essay on Liberation

“…If socialism is the economic instantiation of the pursuit of leveling equivalence and democracy is its political and cultural counterpart, Nietzsche would reject the Marcusean conception of liberation. Perhaps this is why scholars like Holman claim that “on the question of Nietzsche's politics, Marcuse is silent, suggesting perhaps that such a politics—however it might be interpreted—was too much marked by the terrible past to provide any help for an emancipatory project” (Holman, , p. 101).…”

“…While studies of the two thinkers individually are voluminous, this article contributes to the surprisingly barren literature on their intersection . Aside from a dissertation written by David Murphy, which examines Nietzsche and Marcuse's critiques of one‐dimensional society by invoking Hegel's theory of alienation (Murphy, ), scholarly treatment of the intersection between Nietzsche and Marcuse is limited to Christopher Holman's argument that Marcuse turns to Nietzsche and the will to power when he fails to extract a logos of gratification from Freud (Holman, ). This account, however, focuses primarily on Eros and Civilization , with the effect of largely ignoring An Essay on Liberation .…”