Ágnes Heller

Ágnes Heller (born 12 May 1929, Budapest, Hungary) was one of the world’s foremost Marxist philosophers, before moving to a liberal, social-democratic position later in her career. In addition to political and social thought, she also concentrates on Hegelian philosophy, ethics, and existentialism.

Biography and thought

Ágnes Heller was raised in a middle-class Jewish family, and her father, Pal Heller, was never able to stay with a single job for very long. During World War II however, he used his legal training and knowledge of German to help people get together the necessary paperwork to emigrate from Nazi Europe. In 1944, Heller’s father was deported, along with 450,000 other Hungarian Jews, to the Auschwitz concentration camp where he died before the war ended. Heller and her mother managed to avoid deportation as a result of luck and practical wit.

About the influence of the Holocaust on her work, Heller said in her interview with Csaba Polony, editor of the "Left Curve Journal," that “I was always interested in the question: How could this possibly happen? How can I understand this? And this experience of the holocaust was joined with my experience in the totalitarian regime. This brought up very similar questions in my soul-search and world investigation: how could this happen? How could people do things like this? So I had to find out what morality is all about, what is the nature of good and evil, what can I do about crime, what can I figure out about the sources of morality and evil? That was the first inquiry. The other inquiry was a social question: what kind of world can produce this? What kind of world allows such things to happen? What is modernity all about? Can we expect redemption?”

In 1947, Heller began to study physics and chemistry at the University of Budapest. She changed her focus to philosophy, however, when her boyfriend at the time urged her to listen to the lecture of the Marxist philosopher György Lukács, on the intersections of philosophy and culture. At the time, she did not understand the philosophical terminology. However, she was immediately taken aback by how much his lecture addressed her concerns and interests in how to live in the modern world, especially after the experience of World War II and the Holocaust. Faced with the existential choice between Marxism and Zionism, Heller chose Marxism and did not seek to emigarate to Israel.

1947 was also the year that Heller joined the Communist Party while at a Zionist work camp ['We lived in community, we felt we belonged together. We needed neither money nor the rich . . I didn't like the rich, today I am ashamed of it. I abominated the black market dealers, the dollar speculators, the men of rapacity and greed. No problem! I'd stay loyal for ever to the poor. So, crazy chick that I was, I joined the Communist party to be with the poor'. Cited Eric Hobsbawm, "Interesting Times,",2002 p.137] and began to develop her interest in Marxism. However, she felt that the Party was stifling the ability of its adherents to think freely due to the belief in Democratic centralism (total allegiance) to the Party. She was expelled from it for the first time in 1949, the year that Mátyás Rákosi came into power and ushered in the years of Stalinist rule. After 1953 and the installation of Imre Nagy as Prime Minister, Heller was able to safely undertake her doctoral studies under the supervision of Lukács, and in 1955 she began to teach at the University of Budapest.

The 1956 Hungarian Revolution was the most important political event of her life, for at this time she saw the effect of the academic freedoms of Marxist critical theory as dangerous to the entire political and social structure of Hungary. The uprising confirmed Heller’s ideas that what Marx really means is for the people to have political autonomy and collective determination of social life.

Lukács, Heller and other Marxist critical theorists emerged from the Revolution with the belief that Marxism and socialism needed to be applied to different nations in individual ways, effectively questioning the role of the Soviet Union in Hungary’s future. These ideas set Heller on an ideological collision course with the new Moscow-supported government of János Kádár: Heller was again expelled from the Communist Party and she was dismissed from the University in 1958 for refusing to indict Lukács as a collaborator in the Revolution. She was not able to resume her research until 1963, when she was invited to join the Sociological Institute at the Hungarian Academy as a researcher (Tormey 4-18 and Grumley 5-15). From 1963 can be seen the emergence of what would later be called the “Budapest School”, a philosophical forum that was formed by Lukács to promote the renewal of Marxist criticism in the face of practiced and theoretical socialism. Other participants in the Budapest School included Heller and her husband Ferenc Fehér, György Márkus, Mihály Vajda as well later members such as András Hegedűs, György Konrád, Miklós Haraszti and Iván Szelényi (Crampton 349). The School emphasized the idea of the renaissance of Marxism, described by radical philosophy scholar Simon Tormey as

:“a flowering of the critical, oppositional potential they believed lay within Marxism and in particular within the ‘early Marx’ . . . the Marxism of the individual ‘rich in needs,' of solidarity and self-governance . . . they hoped to precipitate a crisis in those systems that had the temerity to call themselves 'socialist'” (8).

Heller’s work from this period of her life, subsequently repudiated, concentrates on themes such as what Marx means to the character of modern societies; liberation theory as applied to the individual; the work of changing society and government from “the bottom up,” and affecting change through the level of the values, beliefs and customs of “everyday life.”

Heller truly proved her remarkable survival skills during the Rakosi and Kadar regimes. Although she claims that she was on an "ideological collision course" with the Communist regime, she was never arrested or suffered serious restrictions by the Hungarian Communists.

Until the events of the 1968 Prague Spring, the Budapest School remained supportive of reformist attitudes towards socialism. After the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces and the crushing of dissent, however, the School and Heller came to believe that the Eastern European regimes were entirely corrupted and that reformist theory was apologist. Heller explains in her interview with Polony that

:“the regime just could not tolerate any other opinion; that is what a totalitarian regime is. But a totalitarian regime cannot totalize entirely, it cannot dismiss pluralism; pluralism exists in the modern world, but it can outlaw pluralism. To outlaw pluralism means that the Party decided which kind of dissenting opinion was allowed. That is, you could not write something without it being allowed by the Party. But we had started to write and think independently and that was such a tremendous challenge against the way the whole system worked. They could not possibly tolerate not playing by the rules of the game. And we did not play by the rules of the game.”

This view, of course, was completely incompatible with Kadar’s view of Hungary’s political future after the Revolution of 1956.

After Lukács’ death in 1971, the School’s members became victims of political persecution, were made unemployed through their dismissal from their university jobs, and were subjected to official surveillance and general harassment. Rather than remain a dissident, Heller and her husband, along with many other members of the core group of the School, chose exile in Australia in 1977.

Heller and Fehér encountered what they regarded as the sterility of local culture and lived in relative suburban obscurity close to La Trobe University in Melbourne, and they assisted in the transformation of "Thesis Eleven" from a labourist journal to a leading Australian journal of social theory before its subsequent conversion to 'American civilization' (Tormey 4-18 and Grumley 5-15).

As described by Tormey, Heller’s mature thought during this time period is based on the tenets that can be attributed to her personal history and experience as a member of the Budapest School, focusing on

:“the stress on the individual as agent; the hostility to the justification of the state of affairs by reference to non-moral or non-ethical criteria; the belief in ‘human substance’ as the origin of everything that is good or worthwhile; and the hostility to forms of theorizing and political practice that deny equality, rationality and self-determination in the name of ‘our’ interests and needs, however defined” (18).

Heller and Fehér left Australia in 1986 to take up positions in the New School for Social Research in New York City, where Heller currently holds the position of Hannah Arendt Professor of Philosophy in the Graduate Studies Program. Heller's philosophy continued its neo-liberal postmodernisation which began with its repudiation of Marxism for a functionalist and market-based theory of society and ended with a conversion to a kind of neoconservatism under the influence of the events of 911. Her contribution to the field of philosophy has been recognized by the many awards that she has received (such as the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Philosophy, Bremen, 1995, and the Szechenyi National Prize in Hungary, 1995) and the various academic societies that she serves on, including the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Heller currently researches and writes prolifically on ethics, Shakespeare, aesthetics, political theory, modernity, and the role of Central Europe in historical events.

In 2006, she was the recipient of the Sonning Prize.

References

* R.J. Crampton "Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century-And Beyond". Second Edition. London: Routledge, 1994.

* Ferenc Fehér and Agnes Heller (1983) "Hungary 1956 Revisited: The Message of a revolution- a Quarter of a Century After", London, UK: George Allen and Unwin Publishers Ltd

* John Grumley (2005) "Ágnes Heller: A Moralist in the Vortex of History", London, UK: Pluto Press

* Curriculum vitae of Ágnes Heller [http://www.newschool.edu/gf/phil/faculty/heller/cv.htm]

* Agnes Heller (2000) "The Frankfurt School", 2 December 2005 [http://www.duke.edu/literature/institute/heller.htm]

* Csaba Polony "Interview with Ágnes Heller" [http://www.leftcurve.org/LC22WebPages/heller.html]

* Simon Tormey (2001) "Ágnes Heller: Socialism, Autonomy and the Postmodern", Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press

Philosophical and Historical Writings: A Select Bibliography

Books

* "Beyond Justice", Oxford, Boston, Basil Blackwell, 1988

* "Can Modernity Survive?", Cambridge, Berkeley, Los Angeles: Polity Press and University of California Press, 1990

* "Dictatorship Over Needs" (with F. Fehér and G. Markus). Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983

* "Doomsday or Deterrence" (with F. Fehér). White Plains: M.E. Sharpe, 1986

* "Eastern Left - Western Left (Freedom, Totalitarianism, Democracy)" (with F. Fehér). Cambridge, New York: Polity Press, Humanities Press, 1987

* "An Ethics of Personality", Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1996

* "From Yalta to Glasnost (The Dismantling of Stalin's Empire)" (with F. Fehér). Oxford, Boston: 1990

* "General Ethics", Oxford, Boston: Basil Blackwell, 1989

* "The Grandeur and Twilight of Radical Universalism" (with F. Fehér). New Brunswick: Transaction, 1990

* "The Humanisation of Socialism" (with A. Hegedus et alii.), (collected papers trans. from Hungarian). London: Allison and Busby, 1976

* "Hungary, 1956 Revisited: The Message of a Revolution A Quarter of a Century After" (with F. Fehér). London, Boston, Sydney: George Allen and Unwin, 1983

* "Immortal Comedy: The Comic Phenomenon in Art, Literature, and Life", Rowman and Littlefield Publishers Inc, November 2005.

* "Individuum and Praxis (Positionen der Budapester Schule)", (collected essays trans. from Hungarian, with G. Lukács et al.). Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1975

* "On Instincts" (English trans. of Hungarian original). Assen: Van Gorcum, 1979

* "Lukács Revalued", editor. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983. (Paperback, 1984)

* "A Philosophy of Morals", Oxford, Boston: Basil Blackwell, 1990.

* "The Postmodern Political Condition" (with F. Fehér), Cambridge, New York: Polity Press Columbia University Press, 1989

* "The Power of Shame (A Rationalist Perspective)", London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1985

* "Reconstructing Aesthetics", editor with F. Fehér. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986

* "Renaissance Man" (English trans. of Hungarian original). London, Boston, Henley: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978.

* "A Theory of Modernity, Blackwell Publishers", Cambridge MA, 1999

* "A Theory of Need in Marx", London: Allison and Busby, 1976.

* "The Time is Out of Joint: Shakespeare as Philosopher of History", Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge MA, 2000

* "Towards a Marxist Theory of Value", Carbondale: University of Southern Illinois, Telos Books, 1972.

Papers and articles

* "Are We Living in a World of Emotional Impoverishment?", "Thesis Eleven", Melbourne, no. 22, 1989, 46-61.

* "Can Everyday Life Be Endangered?", "Philosophy and Social Criticism", Boston, vol.13, no.4, 1988, 297-315.

* "Can Poetry Be Written After the Holocaust? (On Adorno's Dictum)", "Dialectical Anthropology", New York, Amsterdam, 1990, no. 2, 16-25

* "Civic Virtues", "Revue Internationale de Sociologie", Roma, year 26, 1987, no. 1, 2-14.

* "The Complexity of Justice (A Challenge to the Twenty-First Century)," in Ratio Juris, vol.9: 2, June 1996, 138-152.

* "The Contingent Person and the Existential Choice", "The Philosophical Forum", New York, vol.21, nos. l-2, Fall-Winter 1989-90, 53-70. (Reprinted in M. Kelly, ed., "Hermeneutics and Critical Theory in Ethics and Politics", Cambridge, London: MIT Press, 1990, 53-70).

* "Does Socialism Have a Future?" (with F. Fehér), "Dissent", New York, Summer 1989, 1-20. (Reprinted in "New Socialist", London, Dec. 1989-Jan. 1990, 12-17).

* "Europa, Un Epilogo?" "Letra International", Madrid, Fall-Winter 1988, 6-12.

* "Existentialism, Alienation, Postmodemism: Cultural Movements as Vehicles of Change in the Patterns of Everyday Life", A. Milner, P. Thomson, C. Worth, eds. "Postmodern Conditions", Monash University, Melbourne, 1988, 1-15

* "From Totalitarian Dictatorship through Rechtsstaat to Democracy", (with F. Fehér) "Thesis Eleven", Melbourne, no. 26, 1990, 7-26.

* "Germania: La guerra the finisce senza pace," (with F. Fehér), "Mondoperaio", August-September 1990.

* "Le gloriosi rivoluzioni dell'Est", "Mondoperaio", Roma, 1990, year 43, no. 10, 81-91.

* "Krushchev and Gorbacev: A Contrast", (with F. Fehér), "Dissent", New York, Winter 1988, 6-11.

* "The Moral Situation in Modernity", "Social Research", New York, vol. 55, no. 4, Winter 1988, 531-551.

* "Models of the Happy Life and the Good Life Today", " _de. Journal fur Sozialforschung", vol. 1, 1995.

* "On the Genealogy of Morals and Parsifal", in " _de. Inmitten der Zeit", Thomas Grethlein and Heinrich Leitner eds., 1996, 409-430.

* "Sociology as the Defetishization of Modernity", "Madrid-Cardiff: International Sociology", vol. 2, no. 4, December 1987, 391-403. (Reprinted in M. Albrow and E. King, Globalization, Knowledge and Society, London, Newbury Park, New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1990, 35-47).

* "The Two Myths of Technology", "The New Hungarian Quarterly", Budapest, vo1.9, no.30, Summer 1968, 135-142.

* "Unknown Masterpiece", "Philosophy and Social Criticism", Boston, vol.15, no.3, 1990, 205-241.

* "What Is and What Is Not Practical Reason?", "Philosophy and Social Criticism", Boston, vo1.14, nos.3-4, 1988, 391-411. (Reprinted in D. Rasmussen, ed. Universalism VS. Communitarianism (Contemporary Debates in Ethics) Cambridge, London: MIT Press, 1990, 163-183).

* "With Castoriadis to Aristotle", "Revue Europeene des Scienes Sociales", Geneva, year 27, 1989, no. 86, 161-173.

Quote

*"Revolution is young love. It always remains beautiful"

External links

* Collegium Budapest [http://www.colbud.hu]

* "Interview with Ágnes Heller: Post Marxism and the Ethics of Modernity", "A Brief History of Radical Philosophy" 2005. 2 December 2005 [http://www.radicalphilosophy.com/default.asp?channel_id=2190&editorial_id=10186]

* Heller, Ágnes. "The Three Logics of Modernity and the Double Bind of the Modern Imagination", "Collegium Budapest", 2 December 2005. [http://www.colbud.hu/main_old/PubArchive/PL/PL23-Heller.pdf] (.pdf file)

* Robert Kuhn, "Marxism Overview", 24 August 2004, 2 December 2005. [http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/marx.html]

* Mikko Mäntysaari, "Ágnes Heller", 2 December 2005 [http://www.netn.fi/395/netn_395_manty.html]

* Liam McNamara, Michael E. Gardiner (2000) Critiques of Everyday Life, New York and London: Routledge. ISBN 0415113148. 2 December 2005. [http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Reviews/rev12.htm]

* Simon Tormey Interviews with Agnes Heller (1998)” 1 February 2004. 2 December 2005. [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/simon.tormey/articles/hellerinterview.html]

* Agnes Heller at University of Milan, Italy, 7th May 2008. [http://www.secretum-online.it/default.php?idnodo=27&PHPSESSID=ad591fd197c3ef49ff811ed8c85128a5]

* Interview with Agnes Heller, "On Ethics of Personality", by Andrea Vestrucci, in Secretum 16-2008 [http://www.secretum-online.it/default.php?idnodo=720]