Using any other sources or failing fully to cite the sources used will constitute plagiarism and a grade of zero for your paper.
- One of Marcuse’s criticism of Freud is that Freud considered the Reality Principle to necessarily manifest itself in the form of the Performance Principle, and since the Performance Principle necessitates domination, alienation, and instrumental rationality, repression of both Eros and Thanatos becomes a necessity. Explain why Marcuse thinks that Freud is mistaken about the relationship between the Reality Principle and the Performance Principle and how, by severing the necessary relationship between the two, a non-repressive development of Eros and Thanatos becomes possible (the emphasis here should be mainly on the possibility of transforming the performance principle).
- One of Freud’s core contentions is that civilization is only possible through work, and that work is only possible through thorough repression of our libidinal instincts. Marcuse, on the other hand, believes in the possibility of non-repressive development of our libidinal instincts compatible with our modern civilization. Explain Marcuse’s argument for this latter possibility and assess the strength of Marcuse’s argument (the emphasis here should be mainly on the possibility of liberating the Eros from an exclusive genital interpretation as is done in ch.10).
3. Marcuse contends that some of our most elevated achievements, such as art, music, and literature—as well as our leisure time—are easily coopted and integrated by our repressive society under the performance principle. In spite of this, he claims that not everything in us can be so coopted and/or integrated and that we do have a source of revolutionary resistance in us. Explain what the content of this revolutionary resistance is and how it can allegedly escape the material comforts of modern society. Is Marcuse’s argument plausible?
