João Romeiro HermetoLukács’ Ontologie des gesellschaftlichen Wandels

About this book deutschenglish

By examining Lukács’ little-known work Zur Ontologie des gesellschaftlichen Seins (Towards the Ontology of the Social Being), a completely new author is revealed than that of his earlier writings, above all History and Class Consciousness. Both a substantially different philosophy and a de-Manichaean, multifaceted historical materialism emerge. Lukács’ Towards the Ontology of Social Being, which is his last and most important but at the same time most unknown work, reveals the capacity or rather the possibility of revolutionizing the mystical early Lukács and the mechanical Marxist teachings. This opens up new ways to shake up social criticism in its dogmas, especially those of the earlier, famous Lukács himself. The debate on late Lukács is therefore highly topical not only to awaken the Hungarian philosopher from the slumber of his famous vulgar materialism, but also to reformulate Marxism itself and put it on its feet. The correct understanding of the causal-teleological relation of the ontology of social being banishes the category of the mystical proletarian and therefore also any binary understanding of class struggle. Thus the category of class struggle gains a new quality, in that the manifold dynamics of social being are immanent in the centre of the debate. Neither any form of fate nor any self-moving form of emancipation, and all the less a perfect conscious settlement can represent the principle of social change. On the contrary, active human action must always be transformed through confrontation with the real and adapt in a renewed way to truly human and natural conditions, hence, enabling a critical path towards an emancipated ethical practice.