What is it about?
This article explores some marginalia we found in a copy of Hegel's The Phenomenology of Spirit, written by Ernst Bloch in his personal copy of the book. The marginalia include words and notes, written in various colours, with pen, felt tip and crayon, and seemingly at different times. In this essay we explore the idea of the margin in general, as a place for philosophical, historical and theoretical openness and truncation, but also the specific remarks and notes Ernst Bloch made in this particular book.
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Why is it important?
This article sheds light on the reading and commenting practices of philosophers and helps us to understand the philosophical importance of margins, unoccupied spaces of reflection, ideas and thoughts that are in some sense coincidental to other thoughts. It shows how the commentary can be a medium where new ideas can be born. Bloch mediates Hegel's philosophy with Marx's theory in these margins, and shows how both are enriched by this zone of marginal contact.
Perspectives
Sam Dolbear and Johan Siebers worked on and off for several years on this publication, which started with Sam's discovery of the marginal notes in the Bloch Archive. Working on the notes and the ideas contained within them felt like a sojourn in the margins of scholarship, a hiding place or hidden space that had treasures to offer.
Johan Siebers
University of London School of Advanced Study
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Hegel, Marx, Bloch: On the Margins of the Spirit, November 2023, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004308572_012.
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