Georg Lukcss Philosophy of Praxis: From Neo-Kantianism to Marxism

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Georg Lukcs early Marxist philosophy of the 1920s laid the foundations of Critical Theory. However the evaluation of Lukcs philosophical contribution has been largely determined by one-sided readings of eminent theorists like Adorno, Habermas, Honneth or even Lukcs himself. This book offers a new reconstruction of Lukcs early Marxist work, capable of restoring its dialectical complexity by highlighting its roots in his neo-Kantian, 'pre-Marxist' period. In his pre-Marxist work Lukcs sought to articulate a critique of formalism from the standpoint of a dubious mystical ethics of revolutionary praxis. Consequently, Lukcs discovered a more coherent and realistic answer to his philosophical dilemmas in Marxism. At the same time, he retained his neo-Kantian reservations about idealist dialectics. In his reading of historical materialism he combined non-idealist, non-systematic historical dialectics with an emphasis on conscious, collective, transformative praxis. Reformulated in this way Lukcs classical argument plays a central role within a radical Critical Theory.

Reviews

Providing a timely reassessment of Georg Lukcss History and Class Consciousness, Konstantinos Kavoulakos rescues the critical potential of Lukcss theory of reification and transformative praxis from its long-congealed history of misreading and mistranslation, letting us see it with fresh new eyes, and letting it speak to our own troubled times. * Nikolas Kompridis, Research Professor in Philosophy and Political Thought, Australian Catholic University, Australia *
In its orientation toward social transformation and toward new experiments in the meaning of being human, Lukcs's philosophy of praxis was too far ahead of its time. Its time has finally come, and Kavoulakos has given us an interpretation of Lukcss revolutionary Marxism that is a fit for this moment in history. His careful recovery of Lukcss neo-Kantian formation together with his meticulous reconstruction of the core arguments of the Reification essay make Kavoulakoss text a vital contribution to contemporary critical theory. * J. M. Bernstein, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, New School for Social Research, USA *
Kavoulakoss book is an outstanding piece of scholarship that shows, with deep insight, how Georg Lukcs was able to give a unique philosophical foundation to revolutionary politics in History and Class-Consciousness (1923) by combining Neokantian and Hegelian concepts with the Marxist theoretical foundations. Lukcss philosophy of praxis is still relevant today and cannot be reduced, as so many critics have argued, to an idealist argument. * Michael Lwy, Emeritus Research Director of Sociology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France *

Author Bio

Konstantinos Kavoulakos is associate professor of Social and Political Philosophy/Philosophy of Culture at the University of Crete, Greece.