Engaging Agnes Heller: A Critical Companion

by Katie Terezakis, Peter Beilharz, Richard J. Bernstein, Janos Boros, Kira Brunner Don

Overview

This collection of essays examines the life and thought of Agnes Heller, who rose to international acclaim as a Marxist dissident in Eastern Europe, then went on to develop one of the most comprehensive oeuvres in contemporary philosophy, putting forward a distinctive ethical theory and analyses of a vast range of topics covering most every philosophical area. Here, philosophers, sociologists, journalists, and political scientists contextualize, compare and assess different elements of Heller's work; the collection as a whole highlights relevant shifts within that work as well as its intrinsic consistency. Essays in the collection address the relationship between philosophy, political practice and everyday life, Heller's theory of modernity and her ethical theory, her recent scholarship on comedy and the Biblical book of Genesis, her theories of radical needs and radical politics, her aesthetic theory, and questions about her relationship to feminist theory. The collection includes Heller's reflections on the collected essays, as well as an early essay on her mentor Lukács that exposes her own steadfast engagement with certain practical and philosophical issues throughout her life's work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739122570
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	03/16/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Katie Terezakis is assistant professor of philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Editor's Introduction
Chapter 2 Laudatio for Agnes Heller
Chapter 3 Marxism and Exile: Reflections on Intellectual Migration
Chapter 4 Why Does Agnes Heller Matter? Political Action, Social Change, and Radical Politics in the Twenty-First Century
Chapter 5 The Power of Political Needs
Chapter 6 Remembrance of Things Future: From Totalitarianism to Fundamentalism
Chapter 7 Existential Choice: Heller's Either/Or
Chapter 8 Narrative Philosophy: An Essay on Agnes Heller
Chapter 9 To Agnes Heller: An Open Letter on Philosophy and the Real Problem of Woman
Chapter 10 Loving Fate
Chapter 11 Agnes Heller as Autobiographer: History and a Myriad of Contexts
Chapter 12 The Comedy of Philosophy
Chapter 13 Nietzsche's Thumotic Politics: A Programmatic Statement with an Eye on Agnes Heller
Chapter 14 From Contingency to Destiny: On Heller's Existential Ethics
Chapter 15 Reflections on the Essays Addressed to My Work
Chapter 16 "Von der Amut am Geiste": A Dialogue by the Young Lukacs
Chapter 17 Further Reading

Editorial Reviews

A worthy tribute to a distinguished philosopher, who as a "child of the 20th century," reflected on the great catastrophes as well as failed hopes and aspirations of her time. Agnes Heller is a thinker of tremendous depth and breadth, whose contributions range from ethics to aesthetics, to the history of philosophy to the philosophy of needs and feelings, and of course, to her engagement with Marx and Lukacs. These essays bring to life the significance as well as the vibrancy of her contributions.

Seyla Benhabib

With coverage of ethics, aesthetics, and core political and philosophical themes in the history of modernity, this diverse and brilliant collection of essays on the life and thought of Agnes Heller does utmost justice to an extraordinary philosopher of our times.

Lydia Goehr

A worthy tribute to a distinguished philosopher, who as a "child of the 20th century," reflected on the great catastrophes as well as failed hopes and aspirations of her time. Agnes Heller is a thinker of tremendous depth and breadth, whose contributions range from ethics to aesthetics, to the history of philosophy to the philosophy of needs and feelings, and of course, to her engagement with Marx and Lukacs. These essays bring to life the significance as well as the vibrancy of her contributions.

With coverage of ethics, aesthetics, and core political and philosophical themes in the history of modernity, this diverse and brilliant collection of essays on the life and thought of Agnes Heller does utmost justice to an extraordinary philosopher of our times.

From the Publisher