The befriended Ernst-Bloch-Assoziation held an open conference on the topic of Bloch’s “Naturallianz/Allianztechnik”. Philosopher Bloch coined these terms to call for a new relationship of humans with nature to be practised by a new kind of technology.

The venue was the Leipzig University of Applied Sciences. Bloch had been professor at the Universität Leipzig. (Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski, the founder of our Emergent Systems Group, had been one of his students until Bloch had been forced to leave.)

Because of illnesses, several cancellations had to be announced. Nevertheless, ten speakers could present their ideas from 30 September to 2 October 2022 (see programme, see speakers).

Doris Zeilinger from the Ernst-Bloch-Assoziation delivered the opening speech. She tried to explain why Bloch came to Leipzig in 1949 and why he did not return to Leipzig in 1961. The philosophical chair that was offered opened up opportunities for Bloch to work, but difficulties arose right from the start: the focus of the criticism was his interpretation of Hegel, as well as his understanding of matter. These problems concern Bloch’s real concern: the publication of the work. Ultimately, the threatened failure of the complete edition is the reason why Bloch stayed in the West after the Wall was built.

Another four affiliates of GSIS were to hold lectures too: Rainer E. Zimmermann, Tomáš Sigmund, Christian Stary and Wolfgang Hofkirchner (who was absent). Here the presentations available (in German):

Rainer E. Zimmermann | Terraforming als Instrument der Allianztechnik | pdf

Tomáš Sigmund | Erkenntnis als Abbild der Welt oder Kontakt mit ihr? | pptx | docx
This is a contribution to the Information Ethics project.

Wolfgang Hofkirchner | Zur Konzeption des techno-sozialen Systems | pdf
This is a contribution to the Information Ethics project.

All planned contributions will be published in the association’s Jahrbuch series.