Work, anthropology, and human determination in the thought of Schiller, Marx, and Marcuse

This thesis will trace the evolution of the relationship between concepts of work activity and human nature within a particular strand of German social philosophy, represented by Friedrich Schiller, Karl Marx, and Herbert Marcuse. By analysing the writings of these three key theorists, the thesis explores the value of the concept of work activity, defined as the human being's socially mediated interaction with the natural world, as a social-theoretical resource. In recent years this concept has been underutilised to the detriment of critical social theory, particularly in light of the specific socio-political issues that have emerged in the late capitalist era. Through the analysis of Schiller, Marx, and Marcuse, a case is put forward for a renewal of critical social theory around such a conception of work. The guiding idea is that critical social theory stands in need of a philosophical anthropology which approaches the individual human subject as a unified and complete being, whose freedom may be conceived as activated, as well as circumscribed, by the human being’s activity towards nature.