ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Herbert Marcuse as a representative of the Frankfurt School’s position. It analyzes Marcuse’s philosophy of communication as it emerges through his discussion of dialectic, his criticism of contemporary positivist notions of language, and his analysis of contemporary rhetoric. The chapter examines his theory of aesthetics and discuss its limitations from a rhetorical standpoint. Marcuse resolves the mediation problem in Marxism by emphasizing the importance of philosophy and art in preserving the memory of happiness—a memory that serves as a basis for radical political action. Marcuse’s comparison of the modern operationalist philosophy of grammar with previous philosophy illustrates the rhetorical significance of the notion of embodiment of the subject’s essence. A standard argument against Marcuse and other radical social critics is that they lack a sense of judgment and proportion in their criticism. The chapter discusses seizing and reframing those dialectical moments, or knots, identified throughout the history of Marxism.
