Christoph Jünke
The German-Austrian social theorist and philosopher Leo Kofler (1907–1995) represents what Oskar Negt once called ‘unmutilated, living Marxism’. Throughout his life he dealt with issues of history and modernity, Marxist philosophy and the critique of ideology, philosophical anthropology and aesthetics. In this volume, author and Kofler biographer Christoph Jünke elucidates the contours of his philosophy of praxis, traces an arc from the socialist classics to postmodernism, and outlines the socialist humanist thinker’s enduring relevance. The book also includes six essays by Leo Kofler published in English for the first time.
The main work was first published in German as Leo Koflers Philosophie der Praxis: Eine Einführung in sein Denken by Laika Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-944233-33-8. Copyright by Laika Verlag.
Biographical Note
Readership
The volume will be of interest to students and scholars of Marxist and critical theory, European left-wing and workers’ movements, modern European history, and German and Jewish Studies.
Table of Contents
Preface to the English Edition
List of Illustrations
1 A Border Crosser of the Twentieth Century
2 From Classical Socialism to the Critique of Neoliberal Globalisation: Leo Kofler’s Marxism as Theory Intended for Practice
3 Kofler’s Critique of Stalinism
4 Socialist Humanism, Human Nature and Marxist Anthropology
5 The Debate over a Marxist Aesthetics: Going beyond Adorno and Lukács with Kofler and Lefebvre
6 Pseudo-Nature and Pseudo-Critique: Krahl, Kofler, and the Critique of the Frankfurt School with the Intention of Practice
Timetable of the Life and Work of Leo Kofler
Illustrations
Appendix: Six Essays by Kofler
On Freedom [1951]
Liberalism and Democracy [1959/1972]
The Progressive Elite [1959]
The Concept of Society in Historical Materialism [1956]
The Three Main Stages of Dialectical Social Philosophy [1966]
The Anthropology of Consciousness in the Materialism of Karl Marx [1983]
Bibliography
Index
