Table Of ContentCritical Theories and the
Budapest School
Critical Theories and the Budapest School brings together new perspectives
on the Budapest School in the context of contemporary developments in
critical theory. Engaging with the work of the prominent group of figures
associated with Georg Lukács, this book sheds new light on the unique
and nuanced critiques of modernity offered by this school, informed as
its members’ insights have been by first-hand experiences of Nazism,
Soviet-type societies, and the liberal-democratic West.
With studies of topics central to contemporary critical theory, such as
the political and historical consciousness of modernity, the importance of
biopolitics, the complexity of the human condition, and the relevance of
comedy and friendship to developing critical perspectives, the authors draw
on the works of Ágnes Heller, Maria Márkus, György Márkus, and Ferenc
Fehér, demonstrating their enduring relevance to critical theory today and
the ways in which these philosophers can inform new perspectives on cul-
ture and politics.
An innovative reassessment of the Budapest School and the importance
of its legacy, this book opens a much-needed and neglected dialogue with
other schools and traditions of critical theorizing that will be of interest to
scholars of sociology, philosophy, and social theory.
Jonathan Pickle teaches in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at
New Jersey City University, USA.
John Rundell is Principal Honorary and Associate Professor and Reader in
Social Theory at The University of Melbourne, Australia.
Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/
RSSPT
122 The Property-Owning Democracy
Freedom and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century
Gavin Kerr
123 Weber, Schumpeter and Modern Capitalism
Towards a General Theory
John Love
124 The Cultural Contradictions of Anti-Capitalism
The Liberal Spirit and the Making of Western Radicalism
Daniel Fletcher
125 Peter Berger on Modernization and Modernity
An Unvarnished Overview
Robert Bickel
126 Imaginaries of Modernity
Politics, Cultures, Tensions
John Rundell
127 Complexity, Society and Social Transactions
Developing a Comprehensive Social Theory
Thomas Whalen
128 Critical Theories and the Budapest School
Politics, Culture, Modernity
Edited by Jonathan Pickle and John Rundell
129 Social and Political Life in the Era of Digital Media
Higher Diversities
David Toews
Critical Theories and the
Budapest School
Politics, Culture, Modernity
Edited by Jonathan Pickle
and John Rundell
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Jonathan Pickle and
John Rundell; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Jonathan Pickle and John Rundell to be identified as
the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
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or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pickle, Jonathan, editor. | Rundell, John F., editor.
Title: Critical theories and the Budapest School: politics, culture,
modernity / edited by Jonathan Pickle and John Rundell.
Description: 1 Edition. | New York: Routledge, 2018. |
Series: Routledge studies in social and political thought; 128 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017040888
Subjects: LCSH: Critical theory—Hungary. | Heller, Agnes—
Political and social views. | Mâarkus, Mâaria—Political and social
views. | Mâarkus, Gyèorgy, 1934—Political and social views. |
Fehâer, Ferenc, 1933–1994—Political and social views.
Classification: LCC HM480 .C735 2018 | DDC 301.09439—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017040888
ISBN: 978-1-138-20302-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-47245-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
This book is dedicated to the memory of György Márkus (1934–2016)
and Maria Márkus (1936–2017)
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
List of contributors xi
Introduction: the Budapest School and its legacies: migration,
modernity, philosophy 1
JONATHAN PICkLE AND JOHN RUNDELL
PART I
A School? Or its homecoming in migration 13
1 The Budapest School – travelling theory? 15
PETER BEILHARz
2 Learning from the Budapest School women 34
PAULINE JOHNSON
3 Criticism and aesthetics: Ferenc Fehér’s views on art 49
SÁNDOR RADNóTI
PART II
From critique of totalitarianism to critique of political modernity 63
4 The Budapest School on totalitarianism: toward a new version
of the critical theory 65
WALDEMAR BULIRA
5 The critical power of needs: the radical potential in Márkus’s
and Heller’s philosophical anthropology 82
AARON JAFFE
viii Contents
6 Praxis beyond the political: György Márkus contra Hannah Arendt 100
JONATHAN PICkLE
7 Pathways to the ‘Open Utopia’: Heller and Fehér on Lukács’s
messianic Marxism 120
MICHAEL E. GARDINER
8 Adventures in biopolitics 140
JOHN GRUMLEY
9 The absolute present of historical consciousness: Ágnes Heller
between the postmodern and the contemporary 157
DAvID ROBERTS
PART III
Critical theories and the Budapest School: reflections on
György Márkus and Ágnes Heller 173
10 Philosophy in the times of late modernity: reflections on
György Márkus’s Culture, Science, Society 175
JÁNOS kIS
11 Ágnes Heller’s theory of action: the incompleteness of the
human being 188
JOHN RUNDELL
12 Ágnes Heller and the Kantian imaginary 208
MARCIA MORGAN
13 Existential choice as existential comedy: Ágnes Heller’s wager 217
kATIE TEREzAkIS
14 The comic political condition: Ágnes Heller’s philosophy of
laughter and liberty 239
PETER MURPHY
15 The image of the ‘good friend’ in Heller: a bridge between
everyday life and transcendence 262
SERGIO MARISCAL
Index 283
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Neil Jordan, Alice Salt, and the production team at
codeMantra for bringing this book to fruition.
Previously published work with minor copy-editing
János kis, ‘Philosophy in the times of late modernity: Reflections on György
Márkus’s Culture, Science and Society’, Thesis Eleven, 2015, vol. 126 (1): 7–18.
Jonathan Pickle, ‘Praxis beyond the political: György Márkus contra
Hannah Arendt’, Thesis Eleven, 2015, vol. 126 (1): 70–87.
David Roberts, ‘The Absolute Present. Agnes Heller’s Philosophy of History
in Fragments’, Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 2015/3, No. 273: 279–287.
