translated by Neville Plaice, Stephen Plaice, and Paul KnightThe Principle of Hope is one of the great works of the human spirit. It is a critical history of the utopian vision and a profound exploration of the possible reality of utopia. Even as the world has rejected the doctrine on which Bloch sought to base his utopia, his work still challenges us to think more insightfully about our own visions of a better world.The Principle of Hope is published in three volumes: Volume 1 lays the foundations of the philosophy of process and introduces the idea of the Not-Yet-Conscious - the anticipatory element that Bloch sees as central to human thought. It also contains a remarkable account of the aesthetic interpretations of utopian "wishful images" in fairy tales, popular fiction, travel, theater, dance, and the cinema.Volume 2 presents "the outlines of a better world." It examines the utopian systems that progressive thinkers have developed in the fields of medicine, painting, opera, poetry, and ultimately, philosophy. It is nothing less than an encyclopedic account of utopian thought from the Greeks to the present.Volume 3 offers a prescription for ways in which humans can reach their proper "homeland," where social justice is coupled with an openness to change and to the future.

恩斯特•布洛赫（Ernst Bloch），1885年7月8日齣生於德國路德維希港，1977年8月4日逝世於德國杜賓根，青年時代曾攻讀哲學、物理學和音樂史，而後作為自由作傢活躍在慕尼黑、伯爾尼、柏林等地。1933年流亡捷剋斯洛伐剋，1938年流亡美國。1949—1957年任前東德萊比锡大學哲學教授，1961年移居西德，受聘杜賓根大學哲學係客座教授。布洛赫一生筆耕不輟，著述甚豐，他的作品除瞭自編《全集》16捲、補充捲1捲之外，還包括多部哲學史著作、政論和傳記。布洛赫被譽為第二次世界大戰後德國最富於創新的馬剋思主義哲學傢，他的著作先後被譯成包括斯拉夫文、波斯文、阿拉伯文、日文和韓文在內的多種文字，在世界範圍內産生瞭廣泛而深遠的影響。自1959年他的代錶作《希望的原理》三捲齣版以來，它所闡述的“未來的預先推定”、“嚮前的夢”、“具體的烏托邦”、“馬剋思主義中的寒流與暖流”等主題思想不僅激起瞭國際學界非同尋常的科學思維，而且深深打動瞭整整一代人的生活感情和生存意識。