Der Fall des Philosophen: Eine Archäologie des Denkens am Beispiel von Ernst Bloch

The history of mental development on the one and the history of his writings on the other hand form the two separate but essentially intertwined strands of an archeology of Ernst Bloch's thought undertaken in this book. Bloch as a philosopher is peculiar in that his initial access to thought rose from the depths of early, painful experience. To give expression to this experience, he not only needed to develop new categories, but first and foremost had to find words for it: the experience of the uncanny and the abysmal, of which he tells in "Spuren", is on the level of philosophical theory juxtaposed by the "Dunkel des gerade gelebten Augenblicks" (darkness of the moment just lived) and his discovery of a "Noch-nicht-Bewusstes" (not-yet-conscious), thus metaphysically undermining the classical Oedipus complex in the succession of Freud. The repressed knowledge of the neurosis expands into the split knowledge of the paranoid and, if successful, releases new forms of sublimation. These tensions are handed down, embedded and at the same time radically blown up by the political catastrophes of the 20th century. In this book, psyche, work and history thus appear concentrated in Ernst Bloch the philosopher and contemporary witness, who paid tribute to these supra-individual powers in his work as much as he hoped to transgress them.