ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that there are two anthropological dimensions which can be found throughout Marcuses work. One must note that Marcuses theory is not a philosophical anthropology in the strong sense, like the philosophical anthropology of Helmut Plessner. The German conservative philosopher Odo Marquard defined anthropology in the following way: Anthropology is that philosophy of man which becomes possible with the turn to the life world and becomes fundamental with the turn to nature. For this turn to the life world the philosophy of Ludwig Feuerbach is paradigmatic, because he criticized Hegels privileging of logic and put sensuality in the center of his anthropological materialism. Marcuse develops a concrete philosophy as he calls it in his early writings in this philosophical tradition. But Marcuse did not elaborate the concept of nature until late in his life, in An Essay on Liberation and Counterrevolution and Revolt, in which he presents his case for a new anthropology.
