ABSTRACT
Marcuse argues that neutrality is contingent upon self-reflection: neutrality is real only when it has the power of resisting interference. Conversely, the absence of such a self-reflection of reason, the abstracting of reason from every context, makes it available for use by value orientations that come to it from the outside; such orientations are by definition irrational. Marcuse outlines three elements of Webers account of reason: the progressive mathematization of experience, proceeding from the natural to the social sciences; the insistence on the necessity of rational experiment and proofs in the organization of both science and life-conduct; and the genesis and solidification of a technocracy. It is in the transition from theoretical to practical reason that the allegedly neutral conception of formal rationality reveals itself to be limited by the conditions of its own historical emergence; in this particular case, genesis limits validity.
