»Philosophizing is the reconciliation of a revelation that never took place. The path to it is full of astute human wisdom«, relates Marcuse in his ›History of Philosophy‹ in which he makes his readers aware of the »great harvest of thought«.

A dictionary for contemporaries with key words from ›anarchy‹ to ›togetherness.‹ Life's ABC by an epicurean lacking in illusion, a philanthropic pessimist, who seeks humanizing changes while allowing himself to be pushed before a cart filled with ideological baggage.

The question of happiness is as old as the human race. Mainstream philosophy has only ceased to ask it. However, striving for happiness is the principle occupation of man. Marcuse tells stories about the quest for happiness: about Job, about Hans in Luck; about happy pessimists Salomon, Seneca and Schopenhauer; about Thomas Morus, Robert Owen and others who believed in a better, happier society and about Epicurus and his epigones.