Book Review: Georg Luk�cs, A Defence of ?History and Class Consciousness? (Tailism and the Dialectic), London, New York, Verso, 2000. 182 pp (original) (raw)
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Thesis Eleven 157:1, 2020
In History and Class Consciousness' central essay "Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat" Lukács resolved the antinomies of bourgeois philosophy in the revolutionary "standpoint of the proletariat". Lukács' strategy in deriving this proletarian standpoint, however, transposed the logical necessity appropriate to philosophical determinations into possibilities for revolutionary praxis imbedded in socio-historical contexts. Further, since the standpoint is determined as the necessary solution to bourgeois antinomies, it must be conceived singularly, rather than through its manifest diversity. As the key to mediating the social totality beyond antinomies, the "standpoint of the proletariat" is therefore merely reflectively posited and onesidedly determined. While many have developed logical, social-analytic, and political problems associated with determining the proletariat by way of its imputed or party-determined rather than empirical consciousness, few point to the very concept "standpoint of the proletariat" as the source for these problems due to the fact that it is an abstractly derived solution to a philosophically posed problem. Socio-historical determination working with the modality of possibility can resolve Lukács' antinomic determination of the standpoint of the proletariat.
Revista de Estudios Sociales, 2024
Abstract | One hundred years after the publication of History and Class Consciousness, it is imperative to revisit the classic work of Georg Lukács to discuss the relevance of his ideas in a world where the capitalist mode of production does not cease to show its devastating effects. To do so, we divide the article into two sections. In the first part, we place Lukács’ work in dialogue with that of Hegel and Marx in order to clarify the status of violence as an ontological condition of history, allowing us to determine the theoretical-practical framework from which social revolution can be conceptualized. In the second section, we analyze Lukács’ notion of class consciousness not as a historical fatality but as an act of self-determination of the proletariat. We compare this proposal with the current situation of gentrification of the proletariat which, far from invalidating the Hungarian author’s proposal, constitutes its reversal and the platform for its actualization. Ultimately, it is about the proletarian still today taking control and becoming, through class consciousness, the subject-object of history. We conclude by reinterpreting Lukács’ terms in a practice that counters a reactionary position in order to combat both the reactionary movements and the hedonistic immobilism of the proletariat. --- Resumen | A cien años de la publicación de Historia y conciencia de clase, resulta necesario revisitar la clásica obra de Georg Lukács para discutir la actualidad de sus planteamientos en un mundo donde el modo de producción capitalista no deja de mostrar sus efectos devastadores. Para esto, dividimos el artículo en dos apartados. En la primera parte, ponemos en diálogo la obra de Lukács con la de Hegel y Marx para precisar la violencia como condición ontológica de la historia, y establecer cuál es el estatuto teórico-práctico desde el cual se puede pensar la revolución social. En el segundo apartado, analizamos la noción de conciencia de clase de Lukács no como una fatalidad histórica, sino como un acto de autodeterminación del proletariado. Asimismo, cotejamos esta propuesta con la situación actual de aburguesamiento del proletariado que, lejos de invalidar el planteamiento del autor húngaro, constituye su revés y la plataforma de su actualización. Se trata, a fin de cuentas, de que todavía hoy el proletario tome el timón y devenga, por medio de la conciencia de clase, sujeto-objeto de la historia. Concluimos con una reinterpretación de los términos de Lukács en una práctica que deseche una posición reaccionaria para combatir frontalmente tanto los movimientos reaccionarios como el inmovilismo hedonista del proletariado.
Marxism on this side of the Iron Curtain: an honors thesis (HONRS 499)
2011
Many shy away from Marxism, associating it only with the Soviet Union. This thesis attempts to highlight and briefly explain selections from the large body of western Marxist theory in order to show the independence of Marxism from the Soviet influence and acquaint the reader with some of the significant topics examined by Western Marxists. It begins with a brief history of Marxism and socialism and moves on to an explanation of the fundamental concepts in Marxism. The thesis then covers the views of various Western Marxist theorists, including Adorno, Lukacs, Benjamin, Gramsci, Althusser, and Zizek. It also includes discussions of theorists such as Sartre and Derrida, who, while influential in their own right, made attempts to integrate their theories with Marxism. Huyssen, Andreas.
Lukács's theory of reification as developed in History and Class Consciousness represents an interesting attempt to thematise the question of revolutionary subjectivity in a manner that goes beyond the objectivism of traditional Marxist accounts. However, the Weberian leanings of his analysis of reification hindered the concretisation of his profound initial insights and ended up generating antinomies he could not solve. Fundamentally, the basic contradiction of Lukács's theory of reification resides in the gulf that exists between the way he grounds the source of reification (in the real subsumption of labour in capital) and the way he grounds its overcoming (in the formal subsumption). Yet, from a Marxian perspective, the overcoming of alienation can only be the result of the historical movement of the contradictions immanent in the real subsumption of labour in capital, as the historically specific form in which human productive subjectivity develops.
6) Dialectics and Democracy in Georg Lukacs’s Marxism, Capital and Class, v.38, n.3, 2014.
This article aims to bring to the surface the philosophical background of Georg Lukács's democratic theory by investigating his philosophy of dialectics in depth. It presents an innovative interpretation of his understanding of the role of the general committee of the Communist Party in the transition to socialism, and his support of Stalinism. Its aim is to investigate, in a far more rigorous way than has been done before, the relation of his theory of dialectics to the Frankfurt School's theory of dialectics. Thus, for the first time in the literature, Lukács's understanding of the role of the party is analysed by relating it to Max Horkheimer's understanding of the role of the traditional intellectual.
Science & Society, 2003
Lukà cs' theory of reification as developed in History and Class Consciousness represents an interesting approach to revolutionary subjectivity that goes beyond the objectivism of traditional Marxist accounts. However, his Weberian leanings hindered the concretization of his profound initial insights, and ended up generating antinomies he could not solve. Fundamentally, the basic contradiction of Lukà cs' theory of reification lies in the gulf between the source of reification (in the real subsumption of labor under capital) and the posited ground for its overcoming (in the formal subsumption). From a Marxian perspective, the overcoming of alienation can only result from the historical movement of the contradictions immanent in the real subsumption of labor under capital, as the historically specific form in which human productive subjectivity develops. * I would like to thank Simon Clarke, Robert Fine and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.