Lecture Two Georg Lukacs and the Origin of Western Marxism (Western Marxism, Spring, 2013) One: georg Lukacs: Life and works 1, three stages: That of Pre-Marxism(1885-1918): Neo-Kantianism and Modernism That of Western Marxism(1918-1928): Hegelian Marxism That of Stalinist Marxism(1928-1971): Literary Criticism(critical realism) Question: What are the concrete steps for him to move from Neo-Kantism to Western marxism 2, About his intellectual journey toward marxism A. Modernist art 1911 Soul and Form The correspondence between Neo-Kantism and Modernist Art The decisive problem with both of them The intellectual crisis of Georg Lukacs B, the opposition between the two worlds Max Weber's circle in Heidelberg Aesthetics the crisis again(art as the utopia) 1915, The theory of Novel( first the influence of dostoivsky and Kierkegaard; then the dual influence of Ernst Bloch; and then the impact of the first World War the subversive utopianism C. the dialectical relation between the two worlds The event of the October Revolution( the move to the other world is possible) Revolution and the mediation between the two worlds ("Bolshevism as an Ethical Dilemma”,1918.“ Tactics and ethics.1919 The failure of the revolution in Europe and the marxist dialectic(history and class Consciousness, 1923) 3, His other important works A, During the period of western marxism Blum Theses(1928) B, after the move to Moscow Books about dialectic(Young Hegel, 1938, 1948) Books about Literary Realism (the opposition between realism and bourgeois Two major projects in his late time(Aesthetics, the Ontology of Social Being) Two, the Theory of reification (background question: How could he integrated the resources from both Max Weber and Karl Marx together in his theory of reification? 1, Reification and rationalization(about the principle of labor in the
1 Lecture Two Georg Lukacs and the Origin of Western Marxism (Western Marxism, Spring, 2013) One: Georg Lukacs: Life and Works 1, three stages: That of Pre-Marxism (1885-1918): Neo-Kantianism and Modernism That of Western Marxism (1918-1928): Hegelian Marxism That of Stalinist Marxism (1928-1971): Literary Criticism (critical realism) Question: What are the concrete steps for him to move from Neo-Kantism to “Western Marxism”? 2, About his intellectual journey toward Marxism A, Modernist Art 1911 Soul and Form The correspondence between Neo-Kantism and Modernist Art The decisive problem with both of them The intellectual crisis of Georg Lukacs B, the opposition between the two worlds Max Weber’s circle in Heidelberg Aesthetics: the crisis again (art as the utopia) 1915, The theory of Novel ( first the influence of Dostoivsky and Kierkegaard; then the dual influence of Ernst Bloch; and then the impact of the first World War ): the subversive utopianism C, the dialectical relation between the two worlds The event of the October Revolution (the move to the other world is possible) Revolution and the mediation between the two worlds (“Bolshevism as an Ethical Dilemma”, 1918, “Tactics and Ethics”, 1919) The failure of the revolution in Europe and the Marxist Dialectic (History and Class Consciousness, 1923) 3, His other important works A, During the period of western Marxism “Blum Theses” (1928) B, after the move to Moscow Books about dialectic (Young Hegel, 1938, 1948) Books about Literary Realism (the opposition between realism and bourgeois modernism) Two major projects in his late time (Aesthetics, the Ontology of Social Being) Two, the Theory of Reification (background question: How could he integrated the resources from both Max Weber and Karl Marx together in his theory of reification? ) 1, Reification and rationalization (About the principle of labor in the
abstra A, the principle of the labor in the abstract The qualitative difference between the pre-capitalist and the capitalist society; the distinction between a society where this form is dominant, permeating every expression of life, and a society where it only makes an episodic appearance essentially one of quality. For depend ing on which is the case, all the subjective and objective phenomena in the societies concemed are objectified in qualitatively different ways. (P84) The principle of labor in the abstract has become real Thus, the universality of the commod ity form is responsible both objectively and subjectively for the abstraction of labor incorporated in commod ities. Objectively, this formal equality is actually recognized in this relation. ..Subjectively, this formal equality of human labor in the abstract is not only the common factor to which the various commodities are reduced; it also becomes the real principle governing the actual production of commodities. (p870 B, the history of the development of labor division and the principle ofrationalization The development of labor division (from handicraft via co-operation and manufacture to machine industry) a continuous trend towards greater rationalization: specialization mechanization, the calculable work-stint the principle ofrationalization We are concerned above all with the principle at work here: the principle of rationalization based on what can be calculated"(p88) The fragmentation of the object of production The fragmentation of the subject of production:(the self-sufficiency of the mechanical system itself, the change of action to contemplation) C, the workers'attitude of contemplation(time being degraded into space
2 abstract) A, the principle of the labor in the abstract The qualitative difference between the pre-capitalist and the capitalist society; “the distinction between a society where this form is dominant, permeating every expression of life, and a society where it only makes an episodic appearance is essentially one of quality. For depending on which is the case, all the subjective and objective phenomena in the societies concerned are objectified in qualitatively different ways.” (P84) The principle of labor in the abstract has become real “Thus, the universality of the commodity form is responsible both objectively and subjectively for the abstraction of labor incorporated in commodities. Objectively, this formal equality is actually recognized in this relation. … Subjectively, this formal equality of human labor in the abstract is not only the common factor to which the various commodities are reduced; it also becomes the real principle governing the actual production of commodities. ” (p870 B, the history of the development of labor division and the principle of rationalization The development of labor division (from handicraft via co-operation and manufacture to machine industry): a continuous trend towards greater rationalization: specialization, mechanization, the calculable work-stint the principle of rationalization “We are concerned above all with the principle at work here: the principle of rationalization based on what can be calculated”(p88): The fragmentation of the object of production The fragmentation of the subject of production: (the self-sufficiency of the mechanical system itself, the change of action to contemplation) C, the workers’ attitude of contemplation (time being degraded into space)
The contemplative stance adopted towards a process mechanically conforming to fixed laws and enacted independently of mans consciousness and impervious to human intervention, i.e. a perfectly closed system, must likewise transform the basic categories of man's immed iate attitude to the world it reduces space and time to a common denominator and degrades time to the dimension of space. " (p89) Marx: the subordination of man to the machine, therefore, we should not say that one man's hour is worth another man's hour, but rather that one man during an hour is worth just as much as another man during an hour. Time is everything, man is nothing, he is at most the incarnation of time. (p89 Lukacs: Thus time sheds its qualitative, variable, flowing nature; it freezes into ar exactly delimited, quantif iable continuum filled with quantifiable things (the reified mechanically objectified performance of the worker, wholly separated from his total human personality ) in short, it becomes space. (p90) D. reification is the universal fate Reification: the triple“ cut off” an object cut off from everything that makes it the stuff it is, a subject cut off from everything that makes it a singular 'I these both cut off from each other individuals(subjects) cut off from each other(individuals are made isolated abstract atoms) Reification: as the universal fate al relations between individuals in the performance of their labor are disguised under the shape of social relations between the products of labor a relation between people takes on the character of a thing and thus acquires a phantom objectivity, an autonomy that seems so strictly rational and all-embracing as to conceal every trace of its fundamental nature the relation between people. " P83 E. The irrationality of capitalism The rationality of the Capitalism is only partial, but taken as total: It recognizes only part of the object(abstraction of the object); It recognizes only part of the subject(abstraction of the subject ) The principle of rational calculability can only work in the limited partial systems(the relations between these parts are totally contingent) The fate of capitalism Nothing or all 2. the Reified Consciousness A, The determination of the reified consciousness: immediacy (without mediations):
3 “The contemplative stance adopted towards a process mechanically conforming to fixed laws and enacted independently of man’s consciousness and impervious to human intervention, i.e. a perfectly closed system, must likewise transform the basic categories of man’s immediate attitude to the world: it reduces space and time to a common denominator and degrades time to the dimension of space. ” (p89) Marx: the subordination of man to the machine, “therefore, we should not say that one man’s hour is worth another man’s hour, but rather that one man during an hour is worth just as much as another man during an hour. Time is everything, man is nothing; he is at most the incarnation of time.”(p89) Lukacs: “ Thus time sheds its qualitative, variable, flowing nature; it freezes into an exactly delimited, quantifiable continuum filled with quantifiable ‘things’(the reified, mechanically objectified ‘performance’ of the worker, wholly separated from his total human personality): in short, it becomes space.” (p90) D, reification is the universal fate Reification: the triple “cut off” “an object cut off from everything that makes it the stuff it is, a subject cut off from everything that makes it a singular ‘I’, these both cut off from each other” individuals (subjects) cut off from each other (individuals are made isolated abstract atoms) Reification: as the universal Fate The social relations between individuals in the performance of their labor are disguised under the shape of social relations between the products of labor: “a relation between people takes on the character of a thing and thus acquires a ‘phantom objectivity’, an autonomy that seems so strictly rational and all-embracing as to conceal every trace of its fundamental nature: the relation between people.” P83 E, The irrationality of Capitalism The rationality of the Capitalism is only partial, but taken as total: It recognizes only part of the object (abstraction of the object); It recognizes only part of the subject (abstraction of the subject); The principle of rational calculability can only work in the limited partial systems (the relations between these parts are totally contingent) The Fate of Capitalism: Nothing or All 2, the Reified Consciousness A, The determination of the reified consciousness: immediacy (without mediations):
This rational objectification conceals above all the immediate--- qualitative and ial---character of things as things. When use values appear universally as commod ities they acquire a new objectiv ity, a new substantial ity which they did not possess in an age of episod ic exchange and which destroys their orig inal and authentic substantialist B, the reified consciousness and the phenomena of reification Not the separation between reality and consciousness (naive materialism); But the reified consciousness is actually one moments within the structure of reification: by indentify ing the quantitative mode of calculability as the authentic immediate, it makes the commod ity character of the commodity as the only, the permanent ." Just as the Capitalist system continuously produces and reproduces tself economically on higher and higher levels, the structure of reification progressively sinks more deeply, more fatefully and more definitely into the consciousness of man. (p93) C. the universal domination of reified consciousness (a)The ruling class(the influence of Max Weber's criticism of modern bureaucracy) This unity(the unified structure of consciousness)expressed itself in the fact that the problems of consciousness arising from wage-labor were repeated in the ruling class in a refined and spiritualized, but for that reason, more intensified form. " (p100) (bThe bourgeois theory Classical economics: can not understand use value: can not understand crisis Jurisprudence: can not understand the origin of laws They are systematically abandoning the attempt to ground law in reason and to give it a rational content law is henceforth to be regarded as formal calculus with the aid of which the legal consequences of particular actions could be determined as exactly (p108) Philosophy (Three moments: the dogmatic rationalist philosophy, the
4 “This rational objectification conceals above all the immediate--- qualitative and material --- character of things as things. When use values appear universally as commodities they acquire a new objectivity, a new substantiality which they did not possess in an age of episodic exchange and which destroys their original and authentic substantiality.” B, the reified consciousness and the phenomena of reification Not the separation between reality and consciousness (naïvematerialism); But the reified consciousness is actually one moments within the structure of reification: by indentifying the quantitative mode of calculability as the authentic immediate, it makes the commodity character of the commodity as the only, the permanent: “…Just as the Capitalist system continuously produces and reproduces itself economically on higher and higher levels, the structure of reification progressively sinks more deeply, more fatefully and more definitely into the consciousness of man.”(p93) C, the universal domination of reified consciousness (a)The ruling class (the influence of Max Weber’s criticism of modern bureaucracy): “This unity (the unified structure of consciousness) expressed itself in the fact that the problems of consciousness arising from wage-labor were repeated in the ruling class in a refined and spiritualized, but for that reason, more intensified form.”(p100) (b)The bourgeois theory Classical economics: can not understand use value; can not understand crisis Jurisprudence: can not understand the origin of laws “They are systematically abandoning the attempt to ground law in reason and to give it a rational content; law is henceforth to be regarded as formal calculus with the aid of which the legal consequences of particular actions could be determined as exactly as possible.” (p108) Philosophy (Three moments: the dogmatic rationalist philosophy, the
critical philosophy, the philosophy of positivism) The dogmatism of the early rationalist philosophy: the identification of the rational and the real Critical philosophy (the antinomies of the bourgeois thought) The self-conscious efforts to deal with the gap between the rational and the real, but at the same the efforts limited in the area of pure thought The philosophy of positivism: to give up the efforts to deal with the problem of irrationality totally, the worship of facts D. the innate limitation with the reified consciousness The principle of rational calculability can only work in the limited partial systems(the relations between these parts are totally contingent) Either rationalism or irrationalism 3, Capitalism as a religion l, the religious nature of the secularized Capitalized world (Weber, Bloch, Marx) 2. It is both non-abstract and abstract 3, It is non- redemptive
5 critical philosophy, the philosophy of positivism) The dogmatism of the early rationalist philosophy: the identification of the rational and the real; Critical philosophy (the antinomies of the bourgeois thought): The self-conscious efforts to deal with the gap between the rational and the real, but at the same the efforts limited in the area of pure thought; The philosophy of positivism: to give up the efforts to deal with the problem of irrationality totally, the worship of facts D, the innate limitation with the reified consciousness The principle of rational calculability can only work in the limited partial systems (the relations between these parts are totally contingent) Either rationalism, or irrationalism 3, Capitalism as a religion 1, the religious nature of the secularized Capitalized world (Weber, Bloch, Marx) 2, It is both non-abstract and abstract 3, It is non-redemptive
