Utopian Thinking and the Relation between Philosophy and Literature in Ernst Bloch’s the Principle of Hope

The German philosopher and thinker, Ernst Bloch (1885-1977), attempts in his comprehensive work, The Principle of Hope (Das Prinzip Hoffnung), to describe hope as an anthropological constant that aims at individual and social bonum optimum. At the same time, he puts all his efforts in justifying the utopian function in his philosophy, not only historically and sociologically, but also ontologically and aesthetically. Utopian thinking, and its fusion with reflection on possibility, plays a major role in defining his magnum opus. The following article tries to figure out the traces of hope in Bloch’s philosophy and to establish a connection between literature and philosophy, relying on examples from Robert Musil’s novel, The Man without Qualities.