Leo Kofler's Philosophy of Praxis: Western Marxism and Socialist Humanism

Christoph Jünke studied history and social science at the universities of Cologne and Bochum, taught history at the FernUniversität in Hagen, and now works as an independent scholar. He is chair of the Leo-Kofler-Gesellschaft and author of numerous books and articles on socialism, Stalinism, the New Left, and German history, including Leo Kofler: Leben und Werk (1907-1995) (VSA, 2007).

Preface to the English Edition

List of Illustrations


1 A Border Crosser of the Twentieth Century


2 From Classical Socialism to the Critique of Neoliberal Globalisation: Leo Kofler’s Marxism as Theory Intended for Practice


3 Kofler’s Critique of Stalinism


4 Socialist Humanism, Human Nature and Marxist Anthropology


5 The Debate over a Marxist Aesthetics: Going beyond Adorno and Lukács with Kofler and Lefebvre


6 Pseudo-Nature and Pseudo-Critique: Krahl, Kofler, and the Critique of the Frankfurt School with the Intention of Practice


Timetable of the Life and Work of Leo Kofler

Illustrations

Appendix: Six Essays by Kofler:

On Freedom [1951]

Liberalism and Democracy [1959/1972]

The Progressive Elite [1959]

The Concept of Society in Historical Materialism [1956]

The Three Main Stages of Dialectical Social Philosophy [1966]

The Anthropology of Consciousness in the Materialism of Karl Marx [1983]

Bibliography

Index