Ernst Bloch Society

Although the Ernst Bloch society is by all means what we call a person society and deals therefore primarily with the communication and promotion of the works of Ernst Bloch in the first place, at the same time it actually transcends the mere historical maintainance of the memory and is hence actively engaged in clarifying the relationship between Blochian philosophy and the general thinking today. By doing so all those fields of research shall be named and laid open on which this philosophy is actually able to unfold its practical potential.

Insofar the objective is thus not only to look back on what Bloch has written or said, but it is equally important to look forward to the long-term consequences of his thinking, especially with a view to appreciating its structural position within the various lines of philosophical thought.

It is also the society’s objective to present and mediate the contents of Blochian philosophy to those who are not philosophers themselves, but look for possibilities of orientation in a large number of other fields in the sciences as well as in the technologies, and in the arts. Hence, the society tries to achieve maximal interdisciplinarity of theoretical as well practical activities undertaken.

This can be visualized as a foundation for a modern social discourse which serves the concrete development and improvement of all parts of the civil society (the social public) altogether.

Such a foundation can also be visualized as an explicit appreciation of concrete utopian thinking: In order to understand what is, it is necessary to gain knowledge about what could be. It is obvious that the society is concentrating therefore on supporting younger people who are interested in scientific and artistic work within the framework of Blochian philosophy.

Network communication and services (as to bibliography, documentation of conferences and talks, announcements of future activities, mediation of international scientific contacts, possibilities of publishing, co-operation in projects). A newsletter informs about forthcoming and ongoing events. Hence, the philosophy of Ernst Bloch which in terms of systematic aspects can be counted to the modern existential philosophies is essentially a philosophy of practical everyday life.

Seen under this perspective manifold relations can be derived to countless fields of activities which are mainly carried by a political engagement which deals with virtually everything that determines human life on this very planet by critical, methodological as well as systematic means.

The topical satellites which are exhibited in the Ernst Bloch centre in Ludwigshafen illuminate the fields of application which prove themselves as straightforward consequences of this philosophy following a Blochian type of the taking in sight of what there is in the world. The characteristic Blochian topoi (home (Heimat), upright carriage (aufrechter Gang), alliance with nature (Naturallianz) in the first place) can be thus visualized as the regional categories of what there is.