Utopia and Event: two Modes of Producing the New

Abstract

The emergence of the new is a question that has always been of extreme importance for social philosophy. In order to grasp it in its unity, we should look at it in a state of disruption. In this article I will try to demonstrate through a comparison of the ontological concepts of Ernst Bloch and Alain Badiou what two such different ways of producing the new as utopia and event have in common. In the philosophies of Bloch and Badiou it is easy to find many common features: the questions of the subject, of the ontological immanentization of the transcendent, of the opposition between communism and fascism, of rupture and unity. But despite all the similarities there is also a significant difference, which runs through the question of their ontological appeal to the new. Through the comparison of important aspects of the systems of the two authors, the structure that allows us to talk about the commonality of their project without elimination of differences will be revealed.