Back to the Future

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. \n \nSie scheinen allein zu sein, doch ahnen sie immer. \n \n— HÖLDERLIN, “Wie wenn am Feiertage” \n \nWe 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...

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• German Studies and Cosmopolitanism

  Open Access•David D Kim•The German Quarterly•2021

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