Introduction

Freedom - personal, political, religious or economic - is a pervasive ideal in our societies. At the same time, it has also been often noted that Herbert Marcuse is highly selective in the sources and authors he chooses to consider at some length. The method of exposition will consists in a presentation of each major development or facet of Marcuse’s conception of freedom, through series of analyses, interpretations or commentaries on the texts themselves, together with the necessary context. Marcuse’s work is best understood as part of a collective body of work carried out under the name of “critical theory” by the collaborators Of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. The Dialectical Imagination offers sympathetic picture of the people and the research at the institute in the years 1923–50. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.