Exploring the Options in No-Man’s Land:Heller and Markus on the Antinomies of Modern Culture
Abstract
This paper compares the analysis of the antinomies of modern culture in the work of Agnes Heller and Gyrgy Markus. It is particularly concerned with Heller’s innovative introduction of a third optative concept of culture as cultural conversation. The rationale, contours and diagnosis linked to this normative concept are explored and contrasted to the historicising alternative presented in Markus. It is argued that some weaknesses in Heller’s account are intimately linked to the utopian aspiration of her understanding of philosophy.