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Ernst Bloch

Last updated:  23 December 1998


In capitalist society health is the capability to earn, among the Greeks it was the capability to enjoy, and in the Middle Ages the capability to believe.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 465

[N]o entrance without any exit, no possible society without a spacious graveyard.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 467

We may finally risk the proposition that precisely because the doctor, even at the individual sick-bed, has an almost crazy utopian plan latently in view, he ostensibly avoids it. This definite plan, the final medical wishful dream, is nothing less than the abolition of death.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 465

[H]ealth is a wavering notion, if not directly in medical terms, then in social terms. Health is by no means solely a medical notion, but predominantly a societal one. Restoring to health again means in reality bringing the sick man to that kind of health which is respectively acknowledged in each respective society, and which was in fact first formed in that society itself.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 465

What is a health which merely makes people ripe to be damaged, abused, and shot at again?
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 470

[H]ealth is something which should be enjoyed, not abused. A long painless life to a ripe old age, culminating in a death replete with life, is still outstanding, has constantly been planned. As if newborn: this is what the outlines of a better world suggest as far as the body is concerned. But people cannot walk upright if social life itself still lies crooked.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 471

All in all, even without grotesque visions, every organic desire for improvement remains up in the air if the social one is not acknowledged and taken into account. Health is a social concept, exactly like the organic existence in general of human beings, as human beings. Thus it can only be meaningfully increased at all if life in which it stands is not itself overcrowded with anxiety, deprivation and death.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 467

So hardly any of the ills of the body are removed when it is seen in isolation. That is why all improvers of our situation who merely concentrate on health are so petit-bourgeois and odd, the raw fruit and vegetable brigade, the passionate herbivores, or even those who practise special breathing techniques. All this is a mockery compared with solid misery, compared with diseases which are produced not by weak flesh but by powerful hunger, not by faulty breathing but by dust, smoke, and lead. Of course there are people who breathe correctly, who combine a pleasant self-assurance with well-ventilated lungs and an upright torso which is flexible to a ripe old age. But it remains a prerequisite that these people have money; which is more beneficial for a stooped posture than the art of breathing.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 467

As the sick man does not skip and leap around, his wishes do so all the more.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 455

A Cockaigne of healthiness is spread before us, without pain, with bounding limbs and a stomach that is always merry.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 455

Exercise of the body without the mind ultimately meant being cannonfodder, and thugs beforehand.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 452

So the sick man has the feeling not that he lacks something but that he has too much of something. His discomfort, as something which is hanging around him and superfluous, has to go; pain is proud flesh. He dreams of the body which knows how to keep comfortably quiet again.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 454

But the breeding society must first be bred itself, in order that the new human nutritional value is not determined by the demands of the cannibals.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 460

Only in his brain is man the most highly developed living organism, not in other organic capabilities however.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 460

If the exploited lives to which so many are returned were worth something, and if a war did not make up in days for years of lost death, then doctors could be half content with the course of the last hundred years.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 456

The couch from which the sick man arises would only be perfect if he was refreshed instead of merely patched up.
Bloch, Ernst (1995), The principle of hope. Cambridge, Mass. (MIT Press), 456


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