Abstract

The following article by Ernst Bloch is a chapter from Experimentum Mundi, a work still being written. This book sets forth the major categorical features of the World Experiment. Because of the context in which this work stands and in which it can only be understood, an introduction is required. These remarks will deal mainly with the meaning of the ‘categorical’ in Bloch's philosophy, since the peculiar sense of the term can be discovered only through a study of his collected works. The fact that the historical character of the past inheres in the categorical and decisively determines it will bring philosophy to a self-understanding which will preclude a relapse into Hegelianism.