This thorough examination of Agnes Heller's political thought covers a range of subjects, from Marxian anthropology, through aesthetics, the philosophy of history, ethical socialism, postmodernism, and the political forms of the modern state. Simon Tormey treats Heller's work historically and thematically, placing it in a postmodern, 21st-century context.

Ward’s book focuses on the work of the Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller; prominent member of the Budapest School, a group of students who studied under the Marxist social theorist György Lukács. For both Marx and Heller (albeit in different ways) dissatisfaction emerges as the inevitable result of the expansion of need(s) within modernity and as a catalyst for the development of anthropological wealth (what Marx refers to as the 'human being rich in need'). Ward argues that dissatisfaction and the corresponding category of human wealth–as both motif and method–is central to grasping Heller’s seemingly disparate writings. While Marx postulates a radical overcoming of dissatisfaction, Heller argues dissatisfaction is integral not only to the on-going survival of modernity but also to the dynamics of both freedom and individual life. In this way Heller’s work remains committed to a position that both continually returns and departs, is both with and against, the philosophy of Marx. This book will be of interest to scholars of political philosophy, social theory, critical theory, and sociology.

This collection of essays examines the life and thought of Agnes Heller, who rose to international acclaim as a Marxist dissident in Eastern Europe, then went on to develop one of the most comprehensive oeuvres in contemporary philosophy, putting forward a distinctive ethical theory and analyses of a vast range of topics covering most every philosophical area. Here, philosophers, sociologists, journalists, and political scientists contextualize, compare and assess different elements of Heller's work; the collection as a whole highlights relevant shifts within that work as well as its intrinsic consistency. Essays in the collection address the relationship between philosophy, political practice and everyday life, Heller's theory of modernity and her ethical theory, her recent scholarship on comedy and the Biblical book of Genesis, her theories of radical needs and radical politics, her aesthetic theory, and questions about her relationship to feminist theory. The collection includes Heller's reflections on the collected essays, as well as an early essay on her mentor LukOcs that exposes her own steadfast engagement with certain practical and philosophical issues throughout her life's work.

In the age of the war on terror and what one critic has called 'disaster capitalism', the topic of trauma has assumed renewed cultural relevance. Trauma, Historicity, Philosophy is a collection of essays by Australian philosophers, psychoanalysts, and cultural theorists on the genealogy, semantics, and relevance of the concept of 'trauma' in the contemporary world. The collection features two essays by Agnes Heller and Gyorgy Markus addressing trauma, and what psychoanalysis' elevation of 'trauma' to cultural centrality means (and has meant) for modern philosophy and social theory. Other essays address '911', cyber-terrorism, the shoah, political tyranny, the 'end of history', and engage with the thought of Kierkegaard, Schmitt, Hobbes, Derrida, Agamben, Badiou, Zizek, Lacan and Freud.

Each bibliography includes a comprehensive list of the theorist's works and critical studies of these works in English. Each bibliography contains approximately 600 to 900 entries. Books, journal articles, essays within edited books (in the manner of Essay and General Literature) and dissertations are included. References are provided from a wide variety of disciplines and bibliographic sources. The primary purpose of each bibliography is to provide access to the widely reprinted primary works in English and the critical literature in a great variety of books and journals. The topical bibliographies include the authoritative works on the subject and are arranged in useful categories. The lively part of the modern/post-modern debate is generally taking place in alternative and left journals -- journals always included in the literature search in the compiling of the bibliographies.

Vols. for 1969- include a section of abstracts.

Ethical evaluation of language and action has relied historically on the western, monocultural assumptions of classical ethical theory. But persistent contemporary critiques undermine the moral force of ethical agency as individualistic, autonomous, and rationalistic. Contributors to Moral Engagement in Public Life take up the search for intellectual resources in light of these challenges by explicating twelve theorists in moral philosophy and communication ethics. Two classical theorists, Aristotle and Confucius, provide longstanding themes of ongoing relevance and serve as a point of departure for ten contemporary thinkers whose own perspectives are, in part, a response to classical thought in the current context. Together these theorists expand the conceptual domain crossculturally and internationally for understanding ethical discourse and action in practical and professional life.