Ernst Bloch's geist der utopie after a century: a Janus-Faced reading on the Trail of Hope

The centenary of the publication of Ernst Bloch’s first book, Geist der Utopie [The Spirit of Utopia] (1918), marks the occasion of looking back at the role it played in the past century and ahead at what its existentialist utopian philosophy offers in the present time. The phenomenology of the spirit of anticipation addressed the hopelessness of the generation that had grown up during the First World War. Today we are confronted with a different hopelessness or resignation with respect to the project of social equality and liberation. This essay argues that it is not enough to tap into the resources of critical theory and post-metaphysical thinking in our attempts to reclaim radical hope; something more is needed. Geist der Utopie models a strategy for philosophical reflection on and opens a door onto this “something more.” Like a Janus head, it looks in two temporal directions, setting free the agency and spontaneity of the present.
Sie scheinen allein zu sein, doch ahnen sie immer.
— HÖLDERLIN, “Wie wenn am Feiertage”
We seem to be living in times which have made us forget how to hope. Amid the many pressing issues of our day – climate change, failing political and public institutions, the widening gap between rich and poor, geopolitical tension and conflict, the encroaching force of...

This is an Accepted Manuscript that has been published in Back to the future: tradition and innovation in German studies edited by Marc Silberman in the series German Life and Civilization. The original work can be found at: https://www.peterlang.com/view/9781788743051/xhtml/chapter02.xhtml.
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ISSN: 0899-9899; v. 68, Proceedings of the 50th Wisconsin Workshop held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, September 14-16, 2017. Preface: "The essays in this volume are revised, extended versions of presentations at the 50th Wisconsin Workshop, held at the University of Wisconsin in Madison from September 14 to 16, 2017"