Biocentrism and Marxism: Bloch’s Concept of Life and the Spirit of Utopia

This article argues that Ernst Bloch’s (1885-1977) early philosophical development was profoundly influenced by a biocentric perspective that dominated European culture in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century. Biocentrism covers a range of artistic and intellectual currents united by a commitment to embodied life, the natural world, and the insights of the flourishing biological sciences. Despite the clear filiations between biocentrism and völkisch and fascist ideologies, as this article demonstrates, Bloch combined aspects of biocentrism with a Marxist viewpoint in an attempt to counter his political opponents—even as that meant occasionally moving in the same conceptual territory.