Confronting Reification: Revitalizing Georg Lukács's Thought in Late Capitalism

by Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker (Editor)

Overview

Georg Lukács (1885-1971) was one of the most original Marxist philosophers and literary critics of the twentieth century. His work was a major influence on what we now know as critical theory. Almost fifty years after his death, Lukács's legacy has come under attack by right-wing extremists in his native Hungary. Despite efforts to erase his memory, Lukács remains a philosophical gadfly.

In Confronting Reification, an international team of fourteen scholars explicate, reassess, and apply one of Lukács's most significant philosophical contributions, his theory of reification. Based on papers presented at the 2017 Legacy of Georg Lukács conference held in Budapest, the essays in this volume demonstrate the vitality of Lukács's thought and its relevance.

Contributors include: Rüdiger Dannemann, Frank Engster, Andrew Feenberg, Joseph Grim Feinberg, Andraž Jež, Christian Lotz, Csaba Olay, Tom Rockmore, Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker, Mariana Teixeira, Michael J. Thompson, Tivadar Vervoort, Richard Westerman, and Sean Winkler.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642596083
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	09/06/2021
Series:	Studies in Critical Social Sciences
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker currently teaches at Rutgers Universitywhere he is pursuing his PhD in political science. His most recently published and edited books include The Political Thought of African Independence: An Anthology of Sources (Hackett) and (with Michael J. Thompson) Anti-Science and the Assault on Democracy (Prometheus).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Contributors

Introduction

Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker

Part I: Interpreting Reification: The Meaning and Origins of a Concept

Chapter 1. Lukács’s Theory of Reification: An Introduction

Andrew Feenberg

Chapter 2. Categorial Forms as Intelligibility of Social Objects: Reification and Objectivity in Lukács

Christian Lotz

Chapter 3. Reification in History and Class Consciousness

Csaba Olay

Part II: Philosophical Interventions in the Concept of Reification: Applications, Critiques, and Connections

Chapter 4. Reification, Values and Norms: Toward a Critical Theory of Consciousness

Michael J. Thompson

Chapter 5. Reification and the Mechanistic World-Picture: Lukács and Grossmann on Mechanistic Philosophy

Sean Winkler

Chapter 6. “The nature of humanity, or rather the nature of things” – Reification in the Works of Georg Lukács and Walter Benjamin

Andraž Jež

Chapter 7. Lukács on Reification and Epistemic Constructivism

Tom Rockmore

Part III: Reification and the Idea of Socialism: Lukács’s Contributions and Its Limitations for the Renewal of Radical Politics

Chapter 8. The Project of Renewing the Idea of Socialism and the Theory of Reification

Rüdiger Dannemann

Chapter 9. Georg Lukács’s Archimedean Socialism

Joseph Grim Feinberg

Chapter 10. Lukács’s Idea of Communism and Its Blindspot: Money

Frank Engster

Part IV: Social and Political Interventions in the Concept of Reification: Gender, Race, Neoliberalism, and Populism

Chapter 11. The Revolutionary Subject in Lukács and Feminist Standpoint Theory: Dilaceration and Emancipatory Interest

Mariana Teixera

Chapter 12. Linking Racism and Reification in the Thought of Georg Lukács

Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker

Chapter 13. Reification and Neoliberalism: Is There an Alternative?

Tivadar Vervoort

Chapter 14. Populism and the Logic of Commodity Fetishism: Lukács’s Theory of Reification and Authoritarian Leaders

Richard Westerman

INDEX