Historical Configurations of the Necessity and Freedom Dialectic: The Dunayevskaya–Marcuse Correspondence, Automated Production, and the Question of Post-capitalist Society

Abstract

This chapter revisits the Dunayevskaya–Marcuse correspondence to highlight the tensions associated with the elusive dialectic of value, necessity, and freedom heretofore implicit and confined to private exchanges. Marcuse’s Soviet Marxism is more important in this transition than his classic One-Dimensional Man. In restarting the correspondence after a hiatus, Marcuse, in characterizing his theoretical intent, identifies the latter work as the prospective counterpoint for the former. Dunayevskaya responds with a scathing review of Soviet Marxism, publicly criticizing Marcuse’s ignoring her 1940s critique of the official Soviet admission of the operation of the law of value in its economy. She does not recognize Marcuse’s apparent concession on the contemporary social relevance of Hegel’s necessity and freedom dialectic, and its importance for Marx and the transition to socialism.