The Ideology of Death and the Truth of Art: Frankfurt School's Critique of Heidegger's View of Death
Abstract
The critical theory of Frankfurt School was profoundly influenced by Heidegger's Being and Time, and its theoretical coordinate was established through absorbing and criticizing Heidegger's thoughts. In the context of the two world wars, Heidegger's views on death became the focus of Frankfurt School. Criticizing Heidegger's death metaphysics, Horkheimer, Adorno, and Marcuse argued that Heidegger not only ignored the social-historical character of death, but also, in the process of ontologizing death, rendered death into an ideology to maintain social domination. Critical theory emphasizes the meaninglessness of death, pointing out that art provides the real death experience and holds the historical truth about death. Therefore, art has the potential to resist philosophical ideology. In the process of criticizing Heidegger's death metaphysics, critical theory forms the utopian spirit that opposes “being-towards-death” as well as a spirit that depends on death.
Keywords
Heidegger, Frankfurt School, death, ideology, art, utopian spirit
First Page
108
Last Page
117
Recommended Citation
Jin, Ao. 2025. "The Ideology of Death and the Truth of Art: Frankfurt School's Critique of Heidegger's View of Death." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 45, (5): pp.108-117. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol45/iss5/14
