Changes

'''Georg Lukács''' (April 13, 1885 – June 4, 1971) was a Hungary|Hungarian [[Marxist]] [[philosopher]] and [[literary critic]] in the [[tradition ]] of [[Western Marxism]]. He contributed the [[ideas ]] of [[reification]] and [[class consciousness]] to [[Marxist philosophy]] and [[Marxist theory|theory]], and his [[literary ]] criticism was influential in [[thinking ]] [[about ]] [[realism]] and about the [[novel]] as a [[literary genre]]. He served briefly as Hungary's Minister of [[Culture ]] following the [[1956 Hungarian Revolution]].

Lukács's [[full ]] [[name]], in [[German (language)|German]], was '''Georg Bernhard Lukács von Szegedin''', and in [[Hungarian (language)|Hungarian]] was '''Szegedi Lukács György Bernát'''; he published under the names Georg or György Lukács. (Lukács is pronounced [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] {{IPA|[lukɑtʃ]}} by most [[English (language)|English]] speakers.)

He was [[born ]] '''Löwinger György Bernát''' to a wealthy [[Jewish ]] [[family ]] in [[Budapest]]. His [[father ]] was József Löwinger (Szegedi Lukács József, b. [[Szeged]]) ([[1855]]–[[1928]]), a banker, his [[mother ]] was Adele Wertheimer (Wertheimer Adél, b. [[Budapest]]) ([[1860]]–[[1917]]). Lukács studied at the universities of Budapest and Berlin, receiving his Ph.D. in 1906.

While attending grammar [[school ]] and [[university ]] in Budapest, Lukács's membership of various socialist circles brought him into contact with the [[anarcho-syndicalist]] [[Ervin Szabó]], who in turn introduced him to the works of [[Georges Sorel]]. His outlook during this period was [[modernist]] and [[antipositivism|anti-positivist]]. From 1904 to 1908, he was involved in a theatrical group that produced plays by dramatists such as [[Henrik Ibsen]], [[August Strindberg]] and [[Gerhart Hauptmann]].

Lukács spent much [[time ]] in [[Germany]]: he studied in Berlin in 1906 and again in 1909-10, where he made the acquaintance of [[Georg Simmel]], and in Heidelberg in 1913, where he became friends with [[Max Weber]], [[Ernst Bloch]] and [[Stefan George]]. The [[idealist]] [[system ]] Lukács subscribed to at the time was indebted to the [[Kantianism]] that dominated in [[German ]] universities, but also to [[Plato]], [[Hegel]], [[Kierkegaard]], [[Dilthey]] and [[Dostoyevsky]].

Lukács returned to Budapest in 1915 and led a predominantly [[left]]-wing [[intellectual ]] circle that included eminent [[figures ]] such as [[Karl Mannheim]], [[Béla Bartok]], [[Béla Balázs]] and [[Michael Polanyi]] amongst [[others]].

Written between 1919 and 1922 and first published in 1923, ''[[History and Class Consciousness]]'' initiated the current of [[thought ]] that came to be known as [[Western Marxism]]. The book is notable for contributing to debates concerning [[Marxism]] and its relation to [[sociology]], [[politics]] and [[philosophy]], and for reconstructing [[Marx's theory of alienation]] before many of the works of the [[Young Marx]] had been published. Lukács's [[work ]] elaborates and expands upon Marxist theories such as [[ideology#Ideology as an instrument of social reproduction|ideology]], [[false consciousness]], [[reification]] and [[class consciousness]].

For Lukács, "[[ideology]]" is really a [[projection ]] of the [[class ]] [[consciousness ]] of the [[bourgeoisie]], which functions to prevent the [[proletariat]] from attaining a [[real ]] consciousness of its revolutionary [[position]]. Ideology determines the "[[form ]] of [[objectivity]]", thus the [[structure ]] of [[knowledge ]] itself. Real [[science ]] must attain, according to Lukács, the "[[concrete ]] [[totality]]" through which only it is possible to [[think ]] the current form of objectivity as a historical period. Thus, the so-called eternal "[[law (principle)|laws]]" of [[economics ]] are dismissed as the [[ideological ]] [[illusion ]] projected by the current form of objectivity ("What is Orthodoxical Marxism?", §3). He also writes: "It is only when the core of [[being]] has showed itself as [[social ]] becoming, that the being itself can appear as a product, so far [[unconscious]], of [[human ]] [[activity]], and this activity, in turn, as the decisive element of the transformation of being." ("What is Orthodoxical Marxism?",§5) Finally, "orthodoxical marxism" is not defined as [[interpretation ]] of ''The [[Capital]]'' as if it were the Bible or as embracement of certain "marxist [[thesis]]", but as fidelity to the "marxist method", [[Dialectics#Marxist dialectics|dialectics]].

Lukács presents the [[category ]] of ''[[reification]]'' whereby, due to the [[commodity]] [[nature ]] of [[capitalist ]] [[society]], social relations become objectified, precluding the ability for a spontaneous emergence of class consciousness. It is in this context that the [[need ]] for a party in the [[Leninist]] [[sense ]] emerges, the [[subjective ]] aspect of the re-invigorated [[dialectical materialism|Marxian dialectic]].

In his later career, Lukács repudiated the ideas of ''[[History ]] and Class Consciousness'', in [[particular ]] the [[belief ]] in the proletariat as a [[subject (philosophy)|subject]]-[[object (philosophy)|object]] of history" (1960 Postface to [[French ]] [[translation]]), but he wrote a [[defence ]] of [[them ]] as late as [[1925]] or [[1926]]. This book he called ''A [[Defense ]] of History and Class Consciousness'' and was only published in [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]] in 1996 and [[English ]] in 2000. It is perhaps the most important "unknown" Marxist [[text ]] of the twentieth century.

In addition to his standing as a Marxist [[political ]] thinker, Lukács was an influential [[literary critic]] of the twentieth century. His important work in [[literary criticism ]] began early in his career, with ''The [[Theory ]] of the Novel'', a seminal work in [[literary theory]] and the theory of [[genre]]. The book is a history of the [[novel]] as a form, and an investigation into its distinct characteristics.

Lukács later repudiated ''The Theory of the Novel'', [[writing ]] a lengthy introduction that described it as erroneous, but nonetheless containing a "romantic anti-[[capitalism]]" which would later develop into Marxism. (This introduction also contains his famous dismissal of [[Theodor Adorno]] and others in Western Marxism as having taken up residence in the "Grand Hotel Abyss".)

Lukács's later literary criticism includes the well-known essay "[[Kafka ]] or Thomas Mann?", in which Lukács argues for the work of [[Thomas Mann]] as a superior attempt to deal with the condition of [[modernity]], while he criticizes [[Franz Kafka]]'s brand of [[modernism]]. Lukács was steadfastly opposed to the [[formal ]] innovations of modernist writers like Kafka, [[James Joyce]], and [[Samuel Beckett]], preferring the traditional aesthetic of [[realism]]. He famously argued for the revolutionary [[character ]] of the novels of [[Sir Walter Scott]] and [[Honoré de Balzac]]. Lukács felt that both authors' nostalgic, pro-aristocratic politics allowed them accurate and critical stances because of their opposition to the rising [[bourgeoisie]] (albeit reactionary opposition). This view was expressed in his later book ''The Historical Novel''.