In this episode, our islamogauchist subset discusses Ernst Bloch's gripping work Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left. On Bloch's account, the history of materialism inherits a problem from Aristotle out of which two opposing lineages emerge: a clerical right-wing that weaponizes the afterlife against feudal European class-society, and a left-wing inaugurated by Islamic Enlightenment figures Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd. Why should Marxists care? Does naturalism make us better communists? How can historical materialism account for hope? Let us leave you with a Maoist proverb: There's chaos under the heavens, the situation is excellent!
Episode reading:
Ernst Bloch. Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left. Translated by Loren Goldman and Peter Thompson. Columbia University Press, 2019.
Recommend readings:
Cat Moir. Ernst Bloch’s Speculative Materialism: Ontology, Epistemology, Politics. Historical Materialism Book Series 202. Brill, 2019.
Charles T Wolfe., and John Symons. The History and Philosophy of Materialism. Rewriting the History of Philosophy. Routledge, 2025.
Henk de Berg and Cat Moir, eds. Rethinking Ernst Bloch. Historical Materialism Book Series, volume 300. Brill, 2024.
Karam AbuSehly. “Avicenna on Matter: Implications for Ernst Bloch’s Marxist Aesthetics.” ReOrient 3, no. 1 (2017): 4–22.
Tapji Garba. 2020. “Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left, by Ernest Bloch, Trans. Loren Goldman and Peter Thompson”. Arc: The Journal of the School of Religious Studies 48 (December):149–152
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