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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.
“[This] monograph and Kofler translations are especially welcome, given the lack of work by and on Kofler available to English-speaking readers.”
—Alice Nilsson, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books
Christoph Jünke studied history and social science at the universities of Cologne and Bochum, taught history at the FernUniversität in Hagen, and now works as an independent scholar. He is chair of the Leo-Kofler-Gesellschaft and author of numerous books and articles on socialism, Stalinism, the New Left, and German history, including Leo Kofler: Leben und Werk (1907-1995) (VSA, 2007).
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