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''History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics'' () is a collection of essays by the Hungarian Marxist philosopher
György Lukács György Lukács (born Bernát György Löwinger; ; ; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, literary critic, and Aesthetics, aesthetician. He was one of the founders of Western Marxism, an inter ...
, first published in 1923. It is a seminal work in the development of
Western Marxism Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism. The term denotes a loose collection of theorists who advanced an i ...
, moving beyond the
economism Economism is a direct reduction of any political or cultural phenomena or activities to economics. In particular, "economism" was a movement in early Russian Social Democratic Labour Party whose position was that the workers' struggle must be on ...
and
determinism Determinism is the Metaphysics, metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes ov ...
of the
Second International The Second International, also called the Socialist International, was a political international of Labour movement, socialist and labour parties and Trade union, trade unions which existed from 1889 to 1916. It included representatives from mo ...
and exploring the dialectical relationship between the subject and object of history, particularly
class consciousness In Marxism, class consciousness is the set of beliefs that persons hold regarding their social class or economic rank in society, the structure of their class, and their common class interests. According to Karl Marx, class consciousness is an awa ...
and reification. The book is the work for which Lukács is best known. Nevertheless, it was condemned in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and Lukács later repudiated its ideas, coming to believe that in it he had confused
Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a 19th-century German idealism, German idealist. His influence extends across a wide range of topics from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political phi ...
's concept of alienation with that of Marx's. It has been suggested that the concept of reification as employed in the philosopher
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; 26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was a German philosopher known for contributions to Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. His work covers a range of topics including metaphysics, art ...
's ''
Being and Time ''Being and Time'' () is the 1927 ''magnum opus'' of German philosopher Martin Heidegger and a key document of existentialism. ''Being and Time'' had a notable impact on subsequent philosophy, literary theory and many other fields. Though controv ...
'' (1927) was influenced by ''History and Class Consciousness'', though such a relationship remains disputed.


Summary

Lukács attempts a philosophical justification of Bolshevism, stressing the distinction between actual class consciousness and "ascribed" class consciousness, the attitudes the
proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...
would have if they were aware of all of the facts. Marx's idea of class consciousness is seen as a thought which directly intervenes into social being. Claiming to return to Marx's methodology, Lukács re-emphasizes the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's influence on the philosopher Karl Marx, emphasizes
dialectics Dialectic (; ), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argument. Dialectic resembles debate, but the ...
over
materialism Materialism is a form of monism, philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental Substance theory, substance in nature, and all things, including mind, mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. Acco ...
, makes concepts such as alienation and reification central to his theory, and argues for the primacy of the concept of totality. Lukács depicts Marx as an eschatological thinker. He develops a version of Hegelian Marxism that contrasted with the emerging Soviet interpretations of Marxism based on the work of the philosopher
Georgi Plekhanov Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov ( rus, Георгий Валентинович Плеханов, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj vəlʲɪnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ plʲɪˈxanəf, a=Ru-Georgi Plekhanov-JermyRei.ogg; – 30 May 1918) was a Russian revolutionary, ...
and the dialectics of nature inspired by the philosopher
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
: even if all its substantive propositions were rejected, it would remain valid because of its distinctive method. According to Lukács, "Orthodox Marxism, therefore, does not imply the uncritical acceptance of the results of Marx’s investigations. It is not the ‘belief’ in this or that thesis, nor the exegesis of a ‘sacred’ book. On the contrary, orthodoxy refers exclusively to method. It is the scientific conviction that
dialectical materialism Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of scien ...
is the road to truth and that its methods can be developed, expanded and deepened only along the lines laid down by its founders." Lukács maintains that it is through Marx's use of the dialectic that capitalist society can be seen as essentially reified and the proletariat viewed as the true subject of history and the only possible salvation of humanity. All truth, including Marx's materialist conception of history itself, is to be seen in relation to the proletariat's historical mission. Truth, no longer given, must instead be understood in terms of the relative moments in the process of the unfolding of the real union of theory and praxis: the totality of social relations. This union must be grasped through proletarian consciousness and directed party action in which subject and object are one. ''History and Class Consciousness'' was republished in 1967 with a new preface in which Lukács described the circumstances that allowed him to read Marx's newly re-discovered '' Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844'' in 1930, two years before their publication. After reading them, Lukács concluded that in ''History and Class Consciousness'' he had made a basic mistake, that of confusing Hegel's and Marx's respective concepts of alienation. To Hegel, alienation is the objectivity of nature, but for Marx, it refers not to natural objects but to what happens to the products of labor when social relationships make them commodities or capital. ''History and Class Consciousness'' was denounced by Lukács himself as wrong, throughout his life. George Lichtheim details this, in his appraisal of Lukács' oeuvre. However, in 1996, a manuscript kept "secret for more than seventy years" was published for the first time, casting significant doubt on the degree to which Lukács' public self-repudiations reflected his actual beliefs on the merits of ''History and Class Consciousness''. In the manuscript, published in English as ''A Defence of History and Class Consciousness: Tailism and Dialectic'', Lukács defended ''History and Class Consciousness'' from his critics.


Reception

''History and Class Consciousness'' is influential and the work for which Lukács is best known. Lukács' pronouncements in "What is Orthodox Marxism?" have become famous. ''History and Class Consciousness'' helped to create Western Marxism in Europe and the United States and influenced the sociologist Karl Mannheim's work on the sociology of knowledge. However, it led to Lukács being condemned in Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. In response to the Communist attack on his work, Lukács wrote an essay on the Russian revolutionary
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
's views (''Lenin: A Study in the Unity of His Thought'', 1924). In his later career, Lukács repudiated the ideas of ''History and Class Consciousness'', in particular the belief in the proletariat as a " subject-
object Object may refer to: General meanings * Object (philosophy), a thing, being, or concept ** Object (abstract), an object which does not exist at any particular time or place ** Physical object, an identifiable collection of matter * Goal, an a ...
of history". As late as 1925-1926, he still defended these ideas, in an unfinished manuscript, which he called ''Tailism and the Dialectic.'' It was not published until 1996 in Hungarian. It appeared in English in 2000 under the title ''A Defence of History and Class Consciousness''. The political scientist David McLellan maintains that the publication of Marx's key earlier writings vindicated Lukács's interpretation of Marx. The philosopher Lucio Colletti believes that although the publication of those writings disproved some of Lukács's assumptions, the problem of the nature of alienation remained valid. The critic Frederick Crews writes that in ''History and Class Consciousness'', Lukács "made a fatefully ingenious attempt to abolish, through metaphysical prestidigitation, the newly apparent chasm between Marx's historical laws and the triumph of Bolshevism." ''History and Class Consciousness'' was a crucial text for the French Situationist theorist
Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...
, although Debord maintained that Lukács, by arguing that the Bolshevik party provided a mediation between theory and practice that enabled proletarians to determine events within their organization instead of being spectators of them, was describing the opposite of how it functioned in reality. Others influenced by ''History and Class Consciousness'' include the philosopher
Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas ( , ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German philosopher and social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt S ...
, whose initial understanding of Marx came through the book, and the evolutionary geneticist Richard Lewontin, the neurobiologist Steven Rose, and the psychologist Leon Kamin. The philosopher Tom Rockmore has described ''History and Class Consciousness'' as "brilliant." The economists M. C. Howard and J. E. King praise the sophistication of Lukács' Hegelian understanding of how to specify the interests of the proletariat. The philosopher
Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek ( ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian Marxist philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, Global Distin ...
describes the Lukács of ''History and Class Consciousness'' as "the philosopher of Lenin's historical moment". Žižek credits Lukács with bringing together the topic of
commodity fetishism In Marxist philosophy, commodity fetishism is the perception of the economic relationships of production and exchange as relationships among things (money and merchandise) rather than among people. As a form of Reification (Marxism), reificati ...
and reification with the topic of the Party and revolutionary strategy. Some writers have compared Lukács to the philosopher Martin Heidegger, though the existence of any relationship between the two has been disputed. The critic
George Steiner Francis George Steiner, Fellow of the British Academy#Fellowship, FBA (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator. He wrote extensively about the relationship between ...
writes that Lukács shares with Heidegger "a commitment to the concrete, historically existential quality of human acts of perception and intellection." In spite of Steiner's assessment of a supposedly similar view upon history and historical acts shared by Lukacs and Heidegger,
Theodor W. Adorno Theodor W. Adorno ( ; ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, musicologist, and social theorist. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose work has com ...
, whose own
Critical Theory Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...
was deeply indebted to ''History and Class Consciousness'', maintained in his ''
Negative Dialectics ''Negative Dialectics'' () is a 1966 book by the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, in which he presents a critique of traditional Western philosophy and Dialectic, dialectical thinking. Adorno argues that the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment's em ...
'' that Heidegger lacked any proper concept of history and historicity, and especially any that could be compatible to Marxist thought in any way, shape, or form.Adorno, Theodor W., ''Negative Dialektik'' (1966 German edition), Suhrkamp, pp. 130-134 The Marxist philosopher
Lucien Goldmann Lucien Goldmann (; 20 July 1913 – 8 October 1970) was a French philosopher and sociologist of Jewish-Romanian origin. A professor at the EHESS in Paris, he was a Marxist theorist. His wife was sociologist Annie Goldmann. Biography Goldmann w ...
argued that the concept of reification as employed in ''
Being and Time ''Being and Time'' () is the 1927 ''magnum opus'' of German philosopher Martin Heidegger and a key document of existentialism. ''Being and Time'' had a notable impact on subsequent philosophy, literary theory and many other fields. Though controv ...
'' (1927) was influenced by Lukács, although Heidegger never mentions Lukács in his writing and Laurence Paul Hemming finds the suggestion that Lukács influenced Heidegger to be highly unlikely at best. The historian Michel Trebitsch endorsed Goldmann's view that Heidegger was indebted to Lukács. Trebitsch compared ''History and Class Consciousness'' to the philosopher
Henri Lefebvre Henri Lefebvre ( ; ; 16 June 1901 – 29 June 1991) was a French Marxist philosopher and sociologist, best known for furthering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of social ...
's ''La Conscience mystifiée'' (1936), finding them to be similar in the way that they both "offered a Marxist theory of consciousness breaking with the theory of transparency of being which had informed the philosophical tradition."


See also

*
Cultural hegemony In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the dominance of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class who shape the culture of that society—the beliefs and explanations, perceptions, values, and mores—so that the worldview of the rul ...
* False consciousness * György Lukács bibliography * '' Lukacs and Heidegger: Towards a New Philosophy'' * ''
The Society of the Spectacle ''The Society of the Spectacle'' () is a 1967 work of philosophy and Marxist critical theory by Guy Debord where he develops and presents the concept of the Spectacle (critical theory), Spectacle. The book is considered a seminal text for the Si ...
''


References


Bibliography

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External links


Georg Lukács, ''History and Class Consciousness''


{{Authority control 1923 non-fiction books Books by György Lukács Contemporary philosophical literature German non-fiction books Marxist books