Bücher von Agnes Heller

Der zweite Titel einer neuen Reihe mit Essays in der edition.fotoTAPETA, kompakt, handlich, klug. Die unlängst ver-storbene ungarische Philosophin Ágnes Heller seziert die Lage in ihrem Heimat Land: Populismus oder genauer: eth-nischer Nationalismus in der Version Orban. Aber es geht nicht nur um Ungarn: "Weil Ungarn und auch Polen Länder ohne irgendeine demokratische Tradition sind, manifestieren sich bestimmte allgemeine politische Tendenzen hier früher, mit größerer Schärfe und in ,klassischerer' Form als in anderen europäischen Staaten", schreibt Heller. Der "Orbanismus" als ein "Modell für die Eroberung und den Einsatz politischer Macht"?

Ágnes Heller engagiert sich für ein freies und solidarisches Europa. Doch Europa steht sich selbst im Weg: Einerseits durch die ungelösten Konflikte zwischen Zentrum und Peripherie, andererseits, weil man nicht wahrhaben will, dass die Demokratie in Europa keineswegs so fest verankert ist, wie viele glauben.

Wir alle wünschen uns, mehr über unsere Zukunft zu wissen. Wohin die Reise geht. Doch unsere Gesellschaft wird immer komplexer, und entsprechend schwierig ist der Blick in die Zukunft. In einem schwungvollen und sehr klaren Essay beschreibt Ágnes Heller, wie unsere Vorstellungen von der Zukunft zustande kommen, und lässt die wichtigsten historischen Utopien Revue passieren.Die Autorin zweifelt daran, ob unsere Utopien überhaupt erstrebenswert sind: Zu Ende gedacht, haben sie meist totalitären Charakter. Es gibt kein Rezept für die Zukunft, heute weniger denn je. Deshalb sympathisiert Heller mit den modernen Dystopien (Anti-Utopien), von Aldous Huxley bis Michel Houellebecq: Sie warnen mit ganz konkreten Vorstellungen vor den Gefahren für Freiheit und Demokratie.

Ágnes Heller greift zurück bis in die Antike, um zu zeigen, unter welchen Umständen Vorurteile entstehen können. Sie fragt nach gesellschaft lichen und psychologischen Voraussetzungen und analysiert die grundlegenden Vorurteile der Moderne: rassische, ethnische und religiöse Vorurteile, Klassenvorurteile, Vorurteile gegen Frauen und sexuelle Vorurteile. Von Sokrates bis Shakespeare, von Leibniz über Weber bis Foucault und Luhmann führt uns die Grande Dame der Philosophie vor Augen, was sie auch persönlich im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert erlebt hat und noch erlebt: einen ganzen Kosmos von Vorurteilen.

A Theory of Feelings examines the problem of human feelings, widely understood, from phenomenological, analytic, and historical perspectives. It begins with an analysis of drives and affects, and pursues the nature of 'feeling' itself, in all of its variability, through a close study of the distinctive categories of emotions, emotional dispositions, orientive feelings, and the passions. As such, the starting point of the anlysis entails an examination of the characteristics of human involvement, or our ways of being in the world. Building upon this assessment of the conditions of human involvement, the philosophical history and emotional economy characteristic of modern relationships is treated, and the nature of expression, social division, suffering, and responsibility is evaluated in light of the theory of feeling presented here. The book is recommended to anyone interested in philosophy, psychology, sociology, and cognitive science.

The main purpose of this book is to explicate the problematic relationship between the heterogeneity of what is experienced as beautiful and the homogeneity of the conceptualization of that experience, or attempt at such a conceptualization in the era of modern philosophy. While the heterogeneity of what is experienced as beautiful was permitted, and indeed celebrated, in the dominant ancient conception-for example, in the Symposium and Phaedrus of Plato-the need for homogenization in the later appropriation of Plato and in the Enlightenment period relegated the beautiful to the privileged domain of artworks. In her analysis Agnes Heller provides a unique and significant emphasis on the original life content of the experience of the beautiful, which becomes lost in the modern system of the arts. This book details the history of the concept of the beautiful, starting with what Agnes Heller distinguishes between the warm metaphysics of beauty and the cold one-inspired by Platos Janus-faced relationship to beauty-and ending with a fragmented yet hopeful vision propagated by Friedrich Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno, among others. In between these two historical parentheses-the metaphysical Plato on one hand and the post-metaphysical Nietzsche, Benjamin, and Adorno on the other hand-lay a plenitude of figures and intellectual developments, all of which contributed to the demise of the concept of the beautiful in the Western metaphysical tradition. The most important of these figures and developments are examined in this book.

Immortal Comedy is the first book to 'think' philosophically about the comic phenomenon in general. Although author Agnes Heller had written a book that is both deeply scholarly and meditative on the subject of the comic form in film, literature, and life her writing is eminently approachable. In both its subject and style, Immortal Comedy is a seminal book. In it, Heller takes us on a journey through theories of comedy beginning with classical thought. She then detours through foundational political thinkers who refer to, for instance, laughter and power. We are also introduced to modern systematic approaches to thinking comedy, psychological approaches, and existential approaches. The discerning combination of Heller's individual taste for the pantheon of comedic work and, also, what critics may consider 'less significant' work gives this book a character apart from all others. It is the detail with which Heller makes her discussion, how and where she locates 'the comic,' and probably most significantly her discussion of comedy and our own lives that makes Immortal Comedy a principal book for the entire range of humanities scholars and enthusiasts.

A Short History of My Philosophy is an autobiographic account of Agnes Heller's intellectual and academic career. While the narration mainly traces the development of ideas, we also learn how they occurred in the context of challenging life circumstances. Agnes Heller presents the life of her ideas is four stages: the first, 'years of apprenticeship,' details both the pre- and post-Hungarian revolution period during which she studied under Gyrgy Lukcs; the second, 'years of dialogue,' describes the relationships of the 'Budapest school' in terms of their shared work and contributions; the third, 'years of building and intervention,' gives insight into important works written while living in Australia, along with Agnes Heller's political engagements during this period; and finally, the fourth, 'years of wandering,' describes the various projects Agnes Heller has undertaken as a world-traveler at conferences since the departure of her late husband, Ferenc Fehr.