Introduction to Seminar on Marcuse and Hegel:

Seminar with Seyla Benhabib on Marcuse and Hegel:

Epilogue to Seminar on Marcuse and Hegel:

 

Seyla Benhabib discusses Herbert Marcuse and G.W.F. Hegel at Columbia University

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

The Annex, Columbia University

 

“In our time, the rise of Fascism calls for a reinterpretation of Hegel’s philosophy.”

          — Herbert Marcuse, Reason and Revolution (1941)

In this seminar, Seyla Benhabib will discuss Herbert Marcuse’s book on Hegel, Reason and Revolution (1941)​​, as well as his earlier work on Hegel, Hegel’s Ontology and the Theory of Historicity (1932), which she introduced and translated for the English-speaking world. Please make sure to read Professor Benhabib’s introduction to Marcuse’s 1932 work. You may also find the Glossary that Professor Benhabib prepared and published at the end of the book helpful for the seminar.

Core Readings

Herbert Marcuse, Reason and Revolution (Boston: Beacon Press, 1941), please focus on the Prefaces, pp 1-30; 62-251; and 389-421.

Herbert Marcuse, Hegel’s Ontology and the Theory of Historicity, trans. Seyla Benhabib (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987 [1932])

Herbert Marcuse, “Philosophy and Critical Theory,” pp. 99-118, in Negations, trans. Jeremy Shapiro (Penguin, 1968)

Additional Marcuse Readings

Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964)

Herbert Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969)

Resources