Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Marcuse On the Origin of Culture

Being is essentially the striving for pleasure. This striving becomes an "aim" in human existence: the erotic impulse to combine living substance into ever larger and more durable units is the instictual source of civiliation. The sex instincts are life instincts: the impulse to preserve and enrich life by mastering nature in accordance with the developing vital needs is originally an erotic impulse. Anank which seek pleasure, not security. And the "struggle for existence" is originally a struggle for pleasure: culture begins with the collective implementation of this aim.
Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry Into Freud, p. 125

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