Ernst Bloch

Theodor W. Adorno

An intense and lively debate on literature and art between thinkers who became some of the great figures of twentieth-century philosophy and literature.

Aesthetics and Politics

The Principle of Hope, Vol. 1

I am. We are. That is enough. Now we have to start. These are the opening words of Ernst Bloch's first major work, The Spirit of Utopia, written mostly in 1915-16, published in its first version just after the First World War, republished five years later, 1923, in the version here presented for the first time in English translation. The Spirit of Utopia is one of the great historic books from the beginning of the century, but it is not an obsolete one. In its style of thinking, a peculiar amalgam of biblical, Marxist, and Expressionist turns, in its analytical skills deeply informed by Simmel, taking its information from both Hegel and Schopenhauer for the groundwork of its metaphysics of music but consistently interpreting the cultural legacy in the light of a certain Marxism, Bloch's Spirit of Utopia is a unique attempt to rethink the history of Western civilizations as a process of revolutionary disruptions and to reread the artworks, religions, and philosophies of this tradition as incentives to continue disrupting. The alliance between messianism and Marxism, which was proclaimed in this book for the first time with epic breadth, has met with more critique than acclaim. The expressive and baroque diction of the book was considered as offensive as its stubborn disregard for the limits of "disciplines." Yet there is hardly a "discipline" that didn't adopt, however unknowingly, some of Bloch's insights, and his provocative associations often proved more productive than the statistical account of social shifts. The first part of this philosophical meditation—which is also a narrative, an analysis, a rhapsody, and a manifesto—concerns a mode of "self-encounter" that presents itself in the history of music from Mozart through Mahler as an encounter with the problem of a community to come. This "we-problem" is worked out by Bloch in terms of a philosophy of the history of music. The "self-encounter," however, has to be conceived as "self-invention," as the active, affirmative fight for freedom and social justice, under the sign of Marx. The second part of the book is entitled "Karl Marx, Death and the Apocalypse." I am. We are. That's hardly anything. But enough to start.

The Spirit of Utopia

Walter Benjamin

Bertolt Brecht

Georg Lukacs

An intense and lively debate on literature and art between thinkers who became some of the great figures of twentieth-century philosophy and literature

Essays in aesthetics by the philosopher Ernst Bloch that belong to the tradition of cultural criticism represented by Georg Lukács, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin. The aesthetic essays of the philosopher Ernst Bloch (1885-1977) belong to the rich tradition of cultural criticism represented by Georg Lukács, Theodor Adorno, and Walter Benjamin. Bloch was a significant creative source for these thinkers, and his impact is nowhere more evident than in writings on art. Bloch was fascinated with art as a reflection of both social realities and human dreams. Whether he is discussing architecture or detective novels, the theme that drives his work is always the same--the striving for something better, for a homeland that is more socially aware, more humane, more just. The book opens with an illuminating discussion between Bloch and Adorno on the meaning of utopia; then follow twelve essays written between 1930 and 1973 on topics such as aesthetic theory, genres such as music, painting, theater, film, opera, poetry, and the novel, and perhaps most important, popular culture in the form of fairy tales, detective stories, and dime novels. The MIT Press has previously published Ernst Bloch's Natural Law and Human Dignity and his magnum opus, The Principle of Hope. The Utopian Function of Art and Literature is included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.

Selected Essays

The Utopian Function of Art and Literature

"Although it has neither the prophetic energy of Spirit of Utopia nor the serene immensity of The Principle of Hope, Heritage of Our Times is in many ways Ernst Bloch's richest and most satisfying book, and an excellent place for the newcomer to begin. The implacable effort to understand history and the Nazi triumph gives weight and density to a characteristic mixture of experience, impression, aesthetic reflection, philosophical statement, and Utopian and political pronouncement. The crucial concept developed in this volume--'non-contemporaneity' or the so-called 'synchronicity of the non-synchronous'--has become an indispensable intellectual instrument of grasping modernity."--Fredric R. Jameson, Duke University "Brilliant in its insights, illuminating of complex cultural conflicts . . . Heritage of Our Times explores the question of how 'hope' for the future can be justified in the face of violent dislocations, social, cultural, and political to which modernizing societies are inevitably subjected."--Hayden White, University of California, Santa Cruz

Heritage of Our Times

L athéisme dans le christianisme

The Principle of Hope, Vol. 3

On Karl Marx

A Philosophy of the Future

Avicenna e la sinistra aristotelica

Umut İlkesi

Umut Ilkesi Cilt 2

Das Prinzip Hoffnung

Mikhail Bakhtin

Béla Balazs

Marxism and Art is a collection of basic readings in Marxist criticism and aesthetics.

Essays Classic and Contemporary

Marxism and Art

Anthony A. Nassar

Collects aphorisms, essays, stories, and anecdotes, and enacts the author's interest in showing how attention to "traces" can serve as a mode of philosophizing. In an example of how the literary can become a privileged medium for philosophy, his chief philosophical invention is to begin with what gives an observer pause.

Traces

Heritage of Our Times is a brilliant examination of modern culture and its legacy by one of the most important and deeply influential thinkers of the 20th century. Bloch argues that the key elements of a genuine cultural tradition are not just to be found in the conveniently closed and neatly labeled ages of the past, but also in the open and experimental cultural process of our time. One of the most compelling aspects of this work is a contemporary analysis of the rise of Nazism. It probes its bogus roots in German history and mythology at the very moment when the ideologies of Blood and Soil and the Blond Beast were actually taking hold of the German people. The breadth and depth of Bloch's vision, together with the rich diversity of his interest, ensure this work a place as one of the key books of the 20th century.

The Heritage of Our Times

Jürgen Jahn

Die mit 126 Briefen und Gegenbriefen fast luckenlos erhaltene Geschaftskorrespondenz des Philosophen Ernst Bloch (1885 -1977) mit dem Aufbau-Verlag Berlin ist ein buch- und verlagsgeschichtliches Zeitdokument erster Ordnung: Es belegt alle Phasen der Forderung, Noch-Duldung, Verdrangung, zuletzt Unterdruckung eines weltweite Wirkung erlangt hatte. Die sorgfaltig edierte und kommentierte Korrespondenz wird komplettiert durch das dokumentarische Hintergrundmaterial, das der Herausgeber zusammengetragen hat: 35 Texte - parteiische Gutachten, Briefe, Hausmitteilungen, Informationen fur die ZK-Abteilung Wissenschaften und Konfidentenberichte des Geheimen Informators (GI) "Kurt" - beweisen im Detail das politisch-ideologische Rankespiel um Publikation und Nichtpublikation Blochscher Bucher, angefangen bei dem um zwei Jahre verzogerten Erscheinen von Subjekt-Objekt bis hin zum Versuch politischer Erpressung Blochs mittels jahrelanger Unterbrechung des Drucks und der Auslieferung von Band III des Prinzips Hoffnung. Fur den Verlag endete die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Verlust samtlicher Verlagsrechte an Bloch (noch vor seinem Weggang nach Tubingen) und einem uber Jahre verminderten Ansehen in der Welt der Bucher.

Ernst Blochs Geschäftskorrespondenz mit dem Aufbau-Verlag Berlin 1946-1961 ; eine Dokumentation

"Ich möchte das Meine unter Dach und Fach bringen--"

In the twenty-first century, religion has come under determined attack from secular progressives in documentaries, opinion pieces and international bestsellers. Combative atheists have denounced faiths of every stripe, resulting in a crude intellectual polarization in which religious convictions and heritage must be rejected or accepted wholesale. In the long unavailable Atheism in Christianity, Ernst Bloch provides a way out from this either/or debate. He examines the origins of Christianity in an attempt to find its social roots, pursuing a detailed study of the Bible and its fascination for ‘ordinary and unimportant’ people. In the biblical promise of utopia and the scriptures’ antagonism to authority, Bloch locates Christianity’s appeal to the oppressed. Through a lyrical yet close and nuanced analysis, he explores the tensions within the Bible that promote atheism as a counter to the authoritarian metaphysical theism imposed by clerical exegesis. At the Bible’s heart he finds a heretical core and the concealed message that, paradoxically, a good Christian must necessarily be a good atheist.This new edition includes an introduction by Peter Thompson, the Director of the Centre for Enrst Bloch Studies at the University of Sheffield.

Ernst Bloch

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