Bloch and Latent Utopia

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines Ernst Bloch as a theorist of political hope. It presents Bloch in light of his respective engagements with Kant, Hegel, and Marx, and proceeds methodically through his borrowings from each thinker. It argues that Bloch’s famous notion of concrete utopia is predicated on an idiosyncratic vital materialist ontology, such that the not-yet that is central to his work is oriented toward the emergence of novel possibilities that are always already latent in the world. As such, it argues that Bloch aims to overcome what he perceives to be the shortcomings of Kant’s overly subjective account of hope, yet strays toward an equally problematic postulate of natural teleology in the process.