Ernst Bloch’s Concept of Non-Simultaneity (Preface to Translation)

Abstract

The proposed translation of selected fragments of the work of the German philosopher Ernst Bloch (1885–1977) “The Heritage of Our Times” (1934) and the introductory article to it analyze the relationship between the temporal dimensions of German society in the early twentieth century and the characteristics of various social groups. The Legacy of Our Time is an encyclopedia of social life in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. The paper shows the successive conceptual connection between the early work “The Spirit of Utopia” (1918) and the ideas of “The Heritage of Our Times”. The author describes temporality using the concept of non-simultaneity (non-coincidence with the present) and considers its economic, socio-psychological, cultural, and anthropological aspects. The analysis of nonsimultaneity, according to Bloch, should clarify the origins of the popularity of Nazi ideas in the German population. Bloch focuses on various forms of life — “remnants of the past”, which continue to exist in modern society in one form or another. The combination of these “remnants” Bloch marks with the term “heritage”. It shows the connection between the spatial factor (the population of the suburbs), the social factor (the petty bourgeoisie, mostly rural), and the preservation of the gestalts of experience in the minds of certain social groups. Bloch built his analysis of non-simultaneity on Hegel’s and Marxist ideas but developed it within the framework of his original philosophy. Compared to other scholars studying the processes of modernization of various societies in the 19th–20th centuries, he suggested inscribing non-simultaneous contradictions in the analysis of the existing capitalist society. He develops the concepts of the dialectics of time, introducing objectively non-simultaneous and subjectively non-simultaneous contradictions. The author forwards the thesis about the applicability of the non-simultaneity concept to Russian society. The translator characterizes Bloch’s peculiar style of presenting his ideas as being rich in language play and metaphors.