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日出生于德国路德维希港，1977年8月4日逝世于德国杜宾根，青年时代曾攻读哲学、物理学和音乐史，而后作为自由作家活跃在慕尼黑、伯尔尼、柏林等地。1933年流亡捷克斯洛伐克，1938年流亡美国。1949—1957年任前东德莱比锡大学哲学教授，1961年移居西德，受聘杜宾根大学哲学系客座教授。布洛赫一生笔耕不辍，著述甚丰，他的作品除了自编《全集》16卷、补充卷1卷之外，还包括多部哲学史著作、政论和传记。布洛赫被誉为第二次世界大战后德国最富于创新的马克思主义哲学家，他的著作先后被译成包括斯拉夫文、波斯文、阿拉伯文、日文和韩文在内的多种文字，在世界范围内产生了广泛而深远的影响。自1959年他的代表作《希望的原理》三卷出版以来，它所阐述的“未来的预先推定”、“向前的梦”、“具体的乌托邦”、“马克思主义中的寒流与暖流”等主题思想不仅激起了国际学界非同寻常的科学思维，而且深深打动了整整一代人的生活感情和生存意识。