{"product_id":"the-spirit-of-utopia-9780804737654","title":"The Spirit of Utopia","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eI am. We are.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThat is enough. Now we have to start.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese are the opening words of Ernst Bloch's first major work, \u003ci\u003eThe Spirit of Utopia, \u003c\/i\u003e written mostly in 1915-16, published in its first version just after the First World War, republished five years later, 1923, in the version here presented for the first time in English translation.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Spirit of Utopia\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the great historic books from the beginning of the century, but it is not an obsolete one. In its style of thinking, a peculiar amalgam of biblical, Marxist, and Expressionist turns, in its analytical skills deeply informed by Simmel, taking its information from both Hegel and Schopenhauer for the groundwork of its metaphysics of music but consistently interpreting the cultural legacy in the light of a certain Marxism, Bloch's \u003ci\u003eSpirit of Utopia\u003c\/i\u003e is a unique attempt to rethink the history of Western civilizations as a process of revolutionary disruptions and to reread the artworks, religions, and philosophies of this tradition as incentives to continue disrupting.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe alliance between messianism and Marxism, which was proclaimed in this book for the first time with epic breadth, has met with more critique than acclaim. The expressive and baroque diction of the book was considered as offensive as its stubborn disregard for the limits of disciplines. Yet there is hardly a discipline that didn't adopt, however unknowingly, some of Bloch's insights, and his provocative associations often proved more productive than the statistical account of social shifts. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe first part of this philosophical meditation--which is also a narrative, an analysis, a rhapsody, and a manifesto--concerns a mode of self-encounter that presents itself in the history of music from Mozart through Mahler as an encounter with the problem of a community to come. This we-problem is worked out by Bloch in terms of a philosophy of the history of music. The self-encounter, however, has to be conceived as self-invention, as the active, affirmative fight for freedom and social justice, under the sign of Marx. The second part of the book is entitled Karl Marx, Death and the Apocalypse. \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eI am. We are.\u003c\/i\u003e That's hardly anything.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBut enough \u003ci\u003eto start.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-33900\"\u003eErnst Bloch\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Stanford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/01\/2000\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.90lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.02h x 6.04w x 0.68d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780804737654\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0804737657\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-PHI\"\u003ePhilosophy\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-PHI019000\"\u003ePolitical\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-PHI\"\u003ePhilosophy\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-PHI016000\"\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Surveys | Modern\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Stanford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42669483393261,"sku":"9780804737654","price":40.83,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_86415079-b96c-49f2-b21a-f90f7eafc0e3.jpg?v=1649476617","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/the-spirit-of-utopia-9780804737654","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}