Abstract

For the critical social theory of the Frankfurt School, man's mastery of nature has always been double-edged, an ideology which often extended to the domination of men. Marcuse has argued for a new science and technology which would avoid this repressive double mastery; but another member of the school, Jürgen Habermas, rejected his proposal and others as mysticism. Are we then precluded from conceiving liberation in terms of a nonrepressive mastery of nature, “a mastery guided by human needs that have been formulated by associated individuals in an atmosphere of rationality, freedom and autonomy?” The increasing evidence of the ecological problems attendant to advanced technology's ‘successes’ also demands the development of a nonrepressive standpoint toward our natural habitat.