ABSTRACT
In the last decades, messianic interpretations of Marxism have come under intense scrutiny, especially in the work of the Hungarian-born social philosopher Ágnes Heller and her (now deceased) husband and frequent collaborator, Ferenc Fehér. Although Heller and Fehér were both students and disciples of Lukács, they eventually came to believe that the ‘redemptive utopia’ envisaged by messianic Marxism represents an adverse influence. Not only does it constitute a distinct threat to the political freedom and ethical autonomy of individual human beings – in their opinion, it also helped to precipitate some of the more objectionable features of what used to be called ‘actually existing socialism’, at least when it actually existed. At the same time, however, Heller and Fehér defend the legacy of the utopian tradition against the more pessimistic avatars of European postmodernism and post-structuralism. Although Heller in particular sets out to defend a ‘rational’ or ‘radical’ utopia, she and Fehér are also concerned with identifying the conditions under which a multiplicity of utopian visions can coexist and flourish without seeking to impose a particular value-position on society as a whole.
