Ernst Bloch’s Speculative Materialism

In this important new approach to his philosophy and politics, Cat Moir sets out to offer a fresh interpretation of Ernst Bloch's work. The reception of Bloch's work has seen him variously painted as a naïve realist, a romantic nature philosopher, a totalitarian thinker, and an irrationalist whose obscure literary style stands in for a lack of systematic rigour. Ernst Bloch's Speculative Materialism challenges these conceptions of Bloch by reconstructing the ontological, epistemological, and political dimensions of his speculative materialism. Through a close, historically contextualised reading of Bloch's major work of ontology, Das Materialismusproblem, seine Geschichte und Substanz (The Materialism Problem, its History and Substance), Moir presents Bloch as one of the twentieth century's most significant critical thinkers.

ISBN: 9781642593495

Publication date: December 22, 2020

Preface

Introduction

1. The materialism problem

2. Ontology
Nature contra mechanism
Matter as the subject of nature
The logic of matter
Real possibility
Teleology without a telos

3. Epistemology
The structure of the concept
The influence of neo-Kantianism
The role of irony
Rationalism, empiricism, and practice

4. Politics
The German Philosopher of the October Revolution?
For Stalin, against Hitler
The Politics of Speculative Materialism
Speculation, totality, and immanent critique
Chapter 5: Relevance and critique
The speculative turn: Bloch and Meillassoux
New materialism: Bloch and Bennett
Ecological materialisms: Bloch, Foster, and Moore

Epilogue: The speculative expanse

Bibliography