Ernst Bloch
Encyclopedia
Ernst Bloch (ˈɛʁnst ˈblɔx, July 8, 1885 – August 4, 1977) was a German
Marxist
philosopher
.
Bloch was influenced by both Hegel and Marx and, as he always confessed, by novelist Karl May
. He was also interested in music (notably Gustav Mahler
) and art (notably expressionism
). He established friendships with Georg Lukács, Bertolt Brecht
, Kurt Weill
and Theodor W. Adorno
. Bloch's work focuses on the concept that in a utopia
n humanistic
world where oppression
and exploitation
have been eliminated there will always be a truly ideological
revolutionary
force.
architect
, whom he married in 1934 in Vienna
. When the Nazis came to power, they had to flee, first into Switzerland, then to Austria, France, Czechoslovakia, and finally the USA. Bloch returned to the GDR in 1949 and obtained a chair in philosophy at Leipzig
. When the Berlin Wall
was built in 1961, he did not return to the GDR, but went to Tübingen
in West Germany
, where he received an honorary chair in Philosophy. He died in Tübingen.
and in liberation theology
. It is cited as a key influence by Jürgen Moltmann
in his Theology of Hope (1967, Harper and Row, New York), and by Ernesto Balducci
.
Bloch's Principle of Hope was written during his emigration in the USA, where he lived briefly in New Hampshire
before settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts
. He wrote the lengthy three volume work in the reading room of Harvard's Widener Library
. Bloch originally planned to publish it there under the title Dreams of a Better Life. The Principle of Hope tries to provide an encyclopedic account of mankind's and nature's orientation towards a socially and technologically improved future.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
philosopher
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
.
Bloch was influenced by both Hegel and Marx and, as he always confessed, by novelist Karl May
Karl May
Karl Friedrich May was a popular German writer, noted mainly for adventure novels set in the American Old West, and similar books set in the Orient and Middle East . In addition, he wrote stories set in his native Germany, in China and in South America...
. He was also interested in music (notably Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
) and art (notably expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
). He established friendships with Georg Lukács, Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
, Kurt Weill
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
and Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno
Theodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist known for his critical theory of society....
. Bloch's work focuses on the concept that in a utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n humanistic
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
world where oppression
Oppression
Oppression is the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner. It can also be defined as an act or instance of oppressing, the state of being oppressed, and the feeling of being heavily burdened, mentally or physically, by troubles, adverse conditions, and...
and exploitation
Exploitation
This article discusses the term exploitation in the meaning of using something in an unjust or cruel manner.- As unjust benefit :In political economy, economics, and sociology, exploitation involves a persistent social relationship in which certain persons are being mistreated or unfairly used for...
have been eliminated there will always be a truly ideological
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
force.
Life
Bloch was born in Ludwigshafen, the son of an assimilated Jewish railway-employee. After studying philosophy, he married Else von Stritzky, daughter of a Baltic brewer in 1913, who died in 1921. His second marriage with Linda Oppenheimer lasted only a few years. His third wife was Karola Piotrowska, a PolishPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, whom he married in 1934 in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. When the Nazis came to power, they had to flee, first into Switzerland, then to Austria, France, Czechoslovakia, and finally the USA. Bloch returned to the GDR in 1949 and obtained a chair in philosophy at Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
. When the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
was built in 1961, he did not return to the GDR, but went to Tübingen
Tübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...
in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, where he received an honorary chair in Philosophy. He died in Tübingen.
Work
Bloch's work became very influential in the course of the student protest movements in 1968Protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests, largely participated in by students and workers.-Background:Background speculations of overall causality vary about the political protests centering on the year 1968. Some argue that protests could be attributed to the social changes...
and in liberation theology
Liberation theology
Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...
. It is cited as a key influence by Jürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann is a German Reformed theologian. The 2000 recipient of the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.-Moltmann's Youth:...
in his Theology of Hope (1967, Harper and Row, New York), and by Ernesto Balducci
Ernesto Balducci
Ernesto Balducci was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and peace activist.-Biographical notes:Balducci was born in Santa Fiora, Tuscany, Italy....
.
Bloch's Principle of Hope was written during his emigration in the USA, where he lived briefly in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
before settling in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
. He wrote the lengthy three volume work in the reading room of Harvard's Widener Library
Widener Library
The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, commonly known as Widener Library, is the primary building of the library system of Harvard University. Located on the south side of Harvard Yard directly across from Memorial Church, Widener serves as the centerpiece of the 15.6 million-volume Harvard...
. Bloch originally planned to publish it there under the title Dreams of a Better Life. The Principle of Hope tries to provide an encyclopedic account of mankind's and nature's orientation towards a socially and technologically improved future.
Books
- Geist der Utopie (1918) (The Spirit of Utopia, Stanford, 2000)
- Thomas Müntzer als Theologe der Revolution (1921) (Thomas Müntzer as Theologian of Revolution)
- Spuren (1930) (Traces, Stanford University Press, 2006)
- Erbschaft dieser Zeit (1935) (Bequest of This Time)
- Freiheit und Ordnung (1947) (Freedom and Order)
- Subjekt-Objekt (1949)
- Christian Thomasius (1949)
- Avicenna und die aristotelische Linke (1949) (Avicenna and the aristotelian Left)
- Das Prinzip Hoffnung (3 vols.: 1938–1947) (The Principle of Hope, MIT Press, 1986)
- Naturrecht und menschliche Würde (1961) (Natural Law and Human Dignity, MIT Press 1986)
- Tübinger Einleitung in die Philosophie (1963) (The Tübingen Introduction in Philosophy)
- Religion im Erbe (1959–66) (trans.: Man on His Own, Herder and Herder, 1970)
- Atheismus im Christentum (1968) (trans.: Atheism in ChristianityAtheism in ChristianityAtheism in Christianity is a book written by the Christian Marxist Ernst Bloch. The book offers a third way to the Christian/atheist either/or debate.- External links :****...
, 1972) - Politische Messungen, Pestzeit, Vormärz (1970) (Political Measurements, the Plague, Pre-March)
- Das Materialismusproblem, seine Geschichte und Substanz (1972) (The Problem of Materialism, Its History and Substance)
- Experimentum Mundi. Frage, Kategorien des Herausbringens, Praxis (1975) (Experimentum Mundi. Question, Categories of Realization, Praxis)
Articles
- “Causality and Finality as Active, Objectifying Categories:Categories of Transmission”. TELOSTELOS (journal)Telos is an academic journal published in the United States. It was founded in May 1968 to provide the New Left with a coherent theoretical perspective. It sought to expand the Husserlian diagnosis of "the crisis of European sciences" to prefigure a particular program of social reconstruction...
21 (Fall 1974). New York: Telos Press
Further reading
- Adorno, Theodor W.Theodor W. AdornoTheodor W. Adorno was a German sociologist, philosopher, and musicologist known for his critical theory of society....
(1991). "Ernst Bloch's Spuren," Notes to Literature, Volume One, New York, Columbia University Press - Geoghegan, Vincent (1996). Ernst Bloch, London, Routledge
- Hudson, Wayne (1982). The Marxist philosophy of Ernst Bloch, New York, St. Martin's Press
- Schmidt, BurghardBurghart SchmidtBurghart Schmidt is a German philosopher. He is currently professor at Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach and the University of Applied Arts Vienna.-Education:...
(1985) Ernst Bloch, Stuttgart, Metzler - Münster, Arno (1989). Ernst Bloch: messianisme et utopie, PUF, Paris
- Jones, John Miller (c1995). Assembling (post)modernism : the utopian philosophy of Ernst Bloch, New York, P Lang. (Studies in European thought, v.11)
- Korstvedt, Benjamin M. (2010). Listening for utopia in Ernst Bloch’s musical philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
- West, Thomas H. (1991). Ultimate hope without God : the atheistic eschatology of Ernst Bloch, New York, P. Lang (American university studies series 7 theology religion ; vol 97)