Reason and State in Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Herbert Marcuse

Abstract

In the 1940s and 1950s, the majority of social scientists in the United States held a largely shared conviction regarding the explanation of the theoretical and philosophical roots of National Socialism. In contrast to European writers who looked for its philosophical roots in irrational philosophical traditions, those in the US relied on the idea that Hegel's Philosophy of State was the most pertinent ideological foundation for National Socialism. We attempt to explore Marcuse's critique of that US Zeitgeist in this chapter. The philosophical interpretation of Hegel's theory of the State serves as the starting point for this reconstruction.