Ernst Bloch’s short masterpiece Avicenna and the Aristotelian Left gives a striking account of materialism that traces emancipatory elements of modern thought to medieval Islamic philosophers’ encounter with Aristotle. This classical text of 20 th Century German philosophy is more relevant today than ever, and has just been translated into English by Loren Goldman (University of Pennsylvania) and Peter Thompson, Emeritus Reader in German, University of Sheffield, and founder of the Ernst Bloch Centre .