Dialectics and Hope

Author(s): Ernst Bloch and Mark Ritter

Source: New German Critique, No. 9 (Autumn, 1976), pp. 3-10
Published by: New German Critique
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Dialectics and Hope

by ErnstBloch*
1. Mankind, as it is, has been called a premature birth. The human being
comes into the world more helpless and less finished than any animal, takes
considerably longer to mature, and is threatened in the process even by itself.
It wavers and makes mistakes which would never occur to a young animal in
itsinnate environment.It is in the dark, does not know up fromdown, seldom
or only indistinctlyhas in its body the infallible guide which leads a horse to
water, or even a returningswallow to its nest from last year. It comes into
unforeseen circumstances, such as the animal seldom experiences, must find
its way in situations which have never existed before, and with which it is
consequently not acquainted; whereas the young animal is soon whistled to a
stop. The finished armor of the animal's species is soon hung around its
shoulders, and its face, which in young animals often resembles a human
baby's face, soon ossifies. The form of many hundred thousands of years
triumphs; the curtain soon falls decisively over its potentiality for
development. Of necessityanimals repeat the proven factorypattern of their
body and life, hence, they are beings but also verynarrowlybound. Human
beings can participate only veryapproximately in this boundedness; they do
so as the usual mass-produced goods; theydid so in a differentway, fertilely
and distinctly, in the earlier peasant class. But mass-produced goods
themselves are historical, and what fit the average yesterdayno longer fits
today, foruniformity,at least, has its fashions. It is great that we humans are
born unfinishedas a species, not only as children. But it is also a hard lot to be
engaged in a developmentwhich proceeds so slowly,since it is trapped over and
over again by deceivers. Socialist societyhas been a practical possibilityfor at
least a hundred years; and how many among the educated, of whom there is
always ample number, do not even know its ABC's today. Mankind is the
animal who takes detours, yet often in an obdurate and flagrantly foolish
way, not just cunningly. Otherwise, all of outward lifewould run as easily and
peacefully as now happens, at best, among friends.
2. All being is still built around the Not which induces hunger. There does
not yetexist a food which could calm and fillup the lack entirely,or the boon
*This essayrepresents
a chaptertakenfromBloch's Subjekt-Objekt.Erlauterungenzu Hegel
which firstappeared in the GDR in 1951 and was republishedby the SuhrkampVerlag
am Main) in a slightlyexpanded editionin 1962. It appears herein Englishforthe
(Frankfurt
firsttime with the permissionof the SuhrkampVerlag.

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NEW GERMAN CRITIQUE

one has incurred would again become a nuisance. And all previous historyis
still human prehistory,that is, not consciously produced. This historyshows
human self-alienationin various and variouslyvehement forms.For the most
part, it still shows "Nature" in the Hegelian sense, in the sense of a beingoutside-oneself,in which the powers produced by mankind, but not comprehended as produced, have broken away and become reified. Hence, they
appear as an uncontrollable fate, which they have in fact been in previous
history.The so-called iron logic of events proceeds behind the backs of the
individual actors and theirconsciousness,thus completelywithoutthe light of
logic. Completely as a blind, external necessityand consequently a contingency, completelywithoutmediation withthe human subject, like a landslide
or a conflagration in Nature, which is independent of mankind. All human
activity--measured against somethingcompletelysatisfying,indeed fulfilling
-has been called patchwork, and the possible fulfillmentlies by nature not
within history,but puts an end to it; that is the religious view. But previous
historydisplays this patchwork to an extent that is not even necessary on
earth: in the misery of by far the majority of people, in production
relationshipswhose provisionality,whose finitenessas it were, is proved by the
fact that they have again and again become strait jackets. Whereupon the
human subjects as well as the productive forces constitutedor unleashed by
them have fallen into a renewed tension with the present objectivities of
existence. Dialectics, in the world made by mankind, is the relationship of
subject and object, nothing else; it is subjectivityworking its way forward,
again and again overtakingthe objectivation and objectivityit has attained,
and seeking to explode them. In the final analysis, the needy subject, by
finding itself and its work inadequately objectified, is always the motor of
historicallyappearing contradictions. It is the intensive motor which is set
into motion as a consequence of the inadequacy of the achieved form of
existence, and which, by contradicting the contradiction within the thing
itself,activates in a revolutionaryway the contradiction stemming from the
inadequacy of these forms to the totum of the subject's content. For if
unfulfilledneed is the motive and motor of the dialectical-material motion,
then-on the basis of the same, not yet present content-the totalityof the
not present All (Alles) is its cohering goal. Further: omnia sub luna caduca,
everything beneath the moon is perishable (likewise above the moon):
however, this perishability, this barrier and finiteness, presupposes the
non-resigningdesire of a subject as well as a real not yet frozen possibilityin
the world in order even to appear as a barrier,much less a superable one. The
point has not yetbeen reached where societycan go no further,where an "in
vain" would be conferred upon history. Most assuredly the point is not yet

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DIALECTICSANDHOPE 5

visible,exceptin mere anticipationsof the direction,wherethe All of the

Real and theGeneral(des Eigentlichenund Ueberhaupt)could restits head
It wouldbe thesameas thetruthofphenomenalbeing; thisis
evenfleetingly.
not spuriousor mere so-called factual truthas a static truthof havingbecome-so; neitheris it, however,truthpassed off as being pan-logical,
as a
makingits peace with the world by presentingits having-become-so
of
all
an
Dialectical
truth
can
least
be
such
apologetic,in
having-succeeded.
in thesense
in
because
of
Truth
of
a
certain
sense,
and,
Hegel.
precisely
spite
meanthereoftheReal and theGeneralhas aboveall nothingto do withsome
sortofheavenlylight,whichallegedlyhas alreadycome home; such a mytholikewisefoistsoffperfectionas somethingalreadyattained
logicalhypostasis
and existing,only in an imaginaryplace. The question of truthwhich
philosophyposes cannot even be understood,much less answered, by
In thisparticularsenseHegel veryrightly
says: "Philosophymust
mythology.
avoid wantingto be edifying"(II, 9); for the superstitionof a supraterrestrial-static
empiricismhas been forphilosophyeven more of a barrier
beforetheunattainedthanhas the dogma of a terrestrial-static
empiricism.
There is quite a different
meaning,however,if,insteadof variousidolatries
or theworshipof an existingabsolute(be it called factor mechanicalmatter
or hypostasisof God), Hope seeksthe truthof history:as its mostpowerful
or itsuncoveredface. As the not yetpresenttruthof the Real
know-thyself
and theGeneralextremely
threatenedin theprocessleadingto its existence,
of
the
stillutopiantotum thegoal. This truthneed byno meansbewareof
as
intensely
fulfilling
illuminating,
beingedifying;on thecontrary:an intensely
of truthin thissecondsense. Hegel did not merely
natureis the constituent
renew the old unchangingcondition for truth, that it should be the
turnedthis
of perceptionwithitsobject,but he immediately
correspondence
into an objective-identifying
condition,that truthis the correspondenceof
theobjectwithitself,in such a way thatrealityshouldbe appropriateto its
concept,i.e., to reason. In the lattercondition,no matterhow much it
remainssituatedupon theformof existenceor entelechiaas markedat any
characterof truthin the
particulartime,thatvolitional,value-predicating
Idea
the
The
Good is operativein it:
sense
is
of
fulfilling
operative.
practical
"Untruemeansroughlybad, inadequate(unangemessen).In thissensea bad
stateis an untruestate,and the bad and the untruein generalexistin the
and the conceptand the
thatoccursbetweenthe constitution
contradiction
existenceof an object." And further,withthe mostfamiliarpathos of the
Goal and its truth,forwhichthe dialecticsis the vehicle: "All finitethings
have an untruthin them; theyhave a concept and an existencewhich,
however,is inadequate to theirconcept. Thereforetheymust perish,by

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6 NEW GERMAN CRITIQUE

which means the inadequacy of their concept and of their existence is

manifested" (Enc. sec. 24, Appendix 2). It requires no great exertion to arrive
at that pessimism,which is just as much a militantoptimism,that truthin the
second sense, in the sense of positive fulfillmentof "concepts," will require an
extraordinarilygreat amount of historyin order to appear manifested with
even the firstfewsilverraysof existence. Afterall, what is rational has always
become irrational, because it was too narrow; relativelyattained being has
passed over into non-being, since it was not really mediated with its
foundation. It has passed over into something that must be checked, which,
forthe sake of the self-realizationof mankind and the total ground, demands
an ever strongernegation of its negation. The truth-realityof the full totality
was called above an entelechia of the All! There are many stages (Instanzen)
for it; but there is no attainment while the process is continuing.
3. Therefore, all being is built around the Not, which cannot bear to
remain at rest. Since our cause itself has not been brought to a successful
conclusion as yet, it acts in the form it has achieved in a contradictoryway.
Human beings are not slaves, but neither are theymasters, not serfs,but not
feudal lords either, not proletarians, but certainlynot capitalists. What they
are has not yetbecome clear in the division of labor in previouslyexistingclass
society. Even the changing prototypesof the rightlife, even the great cultural
works are more than half mixed with the ideology of the respective class
society. And, as it is among people, so it is in the entire world surroundingus,
to which we stand in a relation of exchange: the cause of totalityis not yet
finished, otherwise there would be no process, not even in nature, and no
dialectics of this process. Dissatisfaction and hope are the constantly
impelling relation to this cause of totality,as a being without alienation from
oneself. The teleological content of the totum is represented negatively in
dissatisfaction,restlesslyimpelling, as its own lack, as the non-possession of
itself. The same content is represented positively in hope, restlessly
illuminating, as its own attraction, as the possibilityof possessing itself. In
order that it might be something concrete, there corresponds to this actively
contradicting relation, on the objective side, precisely the developing
contradiction in the cause itself,but again and again as a contradiction which
itself results from not yet possessing the essence of the phenomenon,
consequently from the continuing untruth, imperfection, unreality in the
real. To be sure--a fact which constitutes the restlessnessof dialectics in
general--there is more on the objective side than this mere harmless gap
between the phenomenon and the total fullness of the essence. Otherwise
there would be no such trouble withopening the world up forcultivation, and

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DIALECTICS AND HOPE

no such resistanceof matterto it, alongside the helpingtendency.In the

negative of objective dialectics (sickness, crisis, imminentdecline into
barbarism)thereis doubtlesssome associationof annihilation,thusnot only
of the Not, as the active motiveforce,but also of nothingness,as merely
effacingnegation,whichofitselfbyno means automaticallyhas thenegation
of its negationwithinitself.It is consequentlyan action which, of itself,
activecontradiction,
leads rather
of thesubjectively
withouttheintervention
to thedevelopmentofan In Vain thanto thatofan All. Indeed, a subjectively
activecounter-move
againstannihilationcan be necessary,in orderthatthe
lattercan be used forthe annihilationof what is worthannihilatingand, by
this means, for the opening-upof new life. An automatismof objective
motto:Throughthenightto
dialecticstowardsthegood,withthecomforting
the light,simplydoes not exist. Rather, only a co-moveand-in timesof
ofthesubjectivefactorcan make thenegativity
catastrophe--acounter-move
in theobjectivedialecticscompletelytheservantof a possiblesuccess.While
ofitself--asin theThirtyYears' War, the PeleponnesianWar, and
negativity
no fruithistorically,that is, the
all completedownfalls
whatsoever--bears
no
of
the
means
is
negation by
capable of developingitselffromits
negation
own objectivityalone.
This veryfactsummonsup theproperlytimeddeed, themoreso, thecloser
human prehistory
seems to its end. The deed not as a putsch, abstract
or
but as the liberationof what is due (das Fallige).
whatever,
spontaneity
but
What is due lies--since,evenin objectivedialectics,notonlynothingness
ever
lies
on
the
real
of
the
All
is
-what
is
due
the
essentially
present
problem
in
the
maintains
the
drift
of
far
as
boards
and
so
home,
humanity
way
ship
tendency.But in thefinalanalysis,thishomecoming,as the liberationfrom
in the world and in its
the incongruous,as the overcomingof nothingness
of the All. This is again
resistances,is preciselythe non-frustratedness
utopiain utopia,but itis at workin dissatisfaction
(rejectedservitude)as well
as in hope (anticipatedfreedomto be-for-oneself).
Hegel, who wanted so
much to keep his distance from any dissatisfaction,even from any
unwarrantedhope, nevertheless
stated,in his idealistway,thatthe truthof
is
of
that
freedom.
Freedom denotesthe for-itself,
in
hope simultaneously
which"the subjectfindsnothingalien and has no limitsor barriersin that
whichconfronts
him, but ratherfindshimself'(X, p. 126). Where Hegel's
dialecticsays: "Beinghas attainedthemeaningoftruth,"so thattheabsolute
is no longer encumbered,eitherwith alienated objectivityor with mere
or ideals: thatis wherethecontentof hope lies. However,it was
subjectivity
necessarythatmaterialistdialecticscome along in orderto recognizeand to
pushalongthiscontentin thereal process,insteadof in theidealistprocessof

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8 NEW GERMAN CRITIQUE

Hegel, who only recognizes what is of itselfalready extant in time and space.
That is the limit of idealist dialectics: it is the limit of mere contemplation,
which per se ipsum is applied to what is past and its horizons, to an essence
which has been revealed in the phenomena that have already come into
existence. Dissatisfaction-hope-totum of the teleological content have a
functiononly in a dialectics which do not take place in the head and draw out
their purely idealistic movements over something that is objectively static.
Knowledge itselfbecomes transformativeonly in these dialectics, a dialectics
of events, which are not contemplated, not enclosed within contemplated
history.It is not applied merelyto the knowable past, but to a real becoming,
to that which is occurring and not yet finished,to a knowable and pursuable
future content. S is not yet P, the proletariat has not yet been sublated (aufgehoben), nature is not yeta home, the real is not yet articulated reality: this
Not Yet is in process, indeed it has attained or is beginning to carve out its
skyline here and there. At the same time, it creates the believed meaning
(Sinnglauben) of true human effort and the effort'smilitant optimism.
Preciselyforthat reason, the dialectic agent of the Not, which drives forward
through all the stagnation and reification to the articulation and manifestation of its own enigmatic, teleological content, is, according to its All,
nothing more, but certainly nothing less, than hope. And as tested hope,
docta spes, hope is the criticallyanticipatorydialectic materialist knowledge
which is mediated and allied with the objective process. In this way, the
dialectical principle, S is not yet P, means withrespect to what is inadequately
determined (has become restraining): Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse
delendam. In respect to the imminent adequate determinability (of the
contentual Novum) it means: Quidquid latet apparebit.
4. Mankind is not yetfinished; therefore,neitheris its past. It continues to
affectus under a differentsign, in the drive of its questions, in the experiment
of its answers; we are all in the same boat. The dead return transformed:
those whose actions were too bold to have come to an end (like Thomas
Miinzer); those whose workis too all-encompassing to have coincided with the
locality of their times (like Aeschylus, Dante, Shakespeare, Bach, Goethe).
The discoveryof the future in the past, that is the philosophy of history,
hence, of philosophical historyas well. The farewellto Hegel is thereforenone
at all, no more than the firstencounter with him, when it has caught fire,
seems like a firstone. As far as the power and continued ripening of thiswork
are concerned, Hegel creates a continuous, a happily fruitful,an admiringly
1. "Among other things, I am of the opinion that Carthage must be destroyed," was said so
frequentlyby Cato that it practically became his motto. "Whatever is hidden will appear" recalls
the Bible.

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DIALECTICS AND HOPE

grateful reunion. Times of transition, such as the present age, make one
sensitiveto the genius of dialectics, to the great teacher. Precisely because the
owl of Minerva does not flyin the dusk, among the ruins of contemplation, in
the thoroughlyfalse circle of circles, but rather because a thought is rising
which belongs to the dawn, to that open time of day which is least alien of all
to Minerva, the goddess of light. Times of transition: today there are such
times of a very strong type, in the sense of the fermentingand threatened
departure to a formof existence more similar to the human. An evolutionary
word of the master of dialectics is veryapt here; in it the owl has even become
what it reallyis forMinerva: the allegoryof vigilance. In 1816 Hegel wrote to
his friendNiethammer: "I hold the view that the World Spirit has given the
times the order to advance; such an order is obeyed; this being strides
forward like an armored, firmlyclosed phalanx, irresistiblyand as imperceptibly as the sun moves, through thick and thin; it is flanked by
innumerable light troops for and against it; most of them have no idea of
what is at stake, and only get knocked on over the head, as if by an invisible
hand. All the hesitantfibbingand sophisticated shadow boxing in the world is
of no help against it; it can only reach about as high as the shoelaces of this
colossus and smear a bit of mud or shoe polish on them, but it cannot loosen
them, much less remove the divine shoes with the elastic soles or the sevenleague boots, if the colossus puts them on. The safest game (both inwardly
and outwardly) is, I dare say, to keep one's eye on the advancing giant." The
drill regulations of the eighteenthcentury,fromwhich the movements of this
simile stem, have been lost, but the image of the advancing giant, mutatis
mutandis, is not yet completely incomprehensible even today. The rational
can become real, the real rational; it all depends upon the phenomenology or
the phenomenal historyof true action. This is the action of the true or the
ending of its continuing prehistory, it is the changing of the world in
accordance with its understood dialectic-material tendency, it is the agreement of human theory-practicewith a realitythat is in accordance with itself.
Passive contemplation has no place here anywhere; on the contrary,
knowledge, for which there is theoreticallyno barrier, must prove itselfto be
equally practical in the socialist liberation from the barrier, in the breaking
up of servitudeand of the rule of necessity.Here, above all, Marxism is qualitatively differentiated from every previous philosophy, hence from the
Hegelian as well, to which it is closest. For with a leap into the new such as
previous historyhad never experienced there begins through Marx--with a
continuation as well as a sublation of Hegel - the changing of philosophy into
a philosophyof changing the world. Philosophy is no longer philosophy zfit is
not dialectical-materialist, but, as must be grasped now and for the entire

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10 NEW GERMAN CRITIQUE

future,dialecticalmaterialismis nothingif it is not philosophical,that is,

proceeding towards great open horizons. This intervention is theoreticalpractical work against alienation, thereforeforthe externalization-disposalof
externalization, forthe manifestationof that which is homelike, in which the
core or what is essential in mankind and the world will finallybe able to begin
manifestingitself. And at this verytime, on this earth, in the realm of our
finally producible content of freedom. Previous prehistory leads there,
without consciousness of the matter, but consciously produces history
possesses its determining theme in the permanently considered, mediately
anticipated totum content of the realm of freedom. Already, partially
fulfilled plans and realistic-symbolical figurations have made this real
Whither and Why discernible. It is the simple thing that is difficultto do,
being-for-onself,whose ways must be won by fighting, whose excellence
demands bravery. The more urgent the operation of the means which bring
this goal closer becomes, the more evident the goal becomes: objectification
of the subjects, subjective mediation of the objects. This goal of a humanized
existence always lay close as a dream wish, but was always utopically distant in
terms of its presence. The real movement to its reality has finally begun
consciously, against the externalization of human beings and of things, for
the coming-to of self-being. By liberating from all conditions of existence
which bear the features of alienated labor, socialism will liberate the entire
societyfromalienation and will thus create the foundation for an entire earth
as the homeland of humanization. That is the very ancient intention of
happiness, that the interior should become exterior and that the exterior
should become as the interior--an intentionwhich does not beautify and yet
close the present world, as Hegel did, but which is allied with the not yet
present world, with those properties of reality which bear the future.

TranslatedbyMarkRitter

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