Intellectuals, Philosophy, and Politics in Dark Times: Interview of Ágnes Heller by Waldemar Bulira

This interview is the result of three long conversations with Ágnes Heller in 2014 and 2017. The subject matter of the interview concerns both biographical issues and Heller’s work itself. The story of her life begins in interwar Hungary, the specifics of which are portrayed through the prism of her father’s experiences; the interview then addresses Heller’s functioning within the communist system, with a special focus on the figure of György Lukács. Both figures are central to Heller’s life: her father instilled in her a belief in liberal values, while Lukács, after World War II, introduced her to Marxism. Her ultimate disillusionment with this doctrine, the first symptoms of which became apparent while the Budapest School still existed, resulted in a shift to a revisionist position and subsequent expulsion from communist Hungary. The themes raised in the interview document the intellectual evolution of Heller, whose political-philosophical beliefs gradually drifted toward liberal-postmodernist positions. On a broader level the topics of the conversation oscillate around the category of the intellectual, contemporary philosophy, the phenomenon of grand narratives, and the Holocaust, as well as the fragility of liberal democracy in contemporary modern society.