Why students of the Frankfurt school will have to read Lukács

Andrew Feenberg

pp. 109-133

in: The Palgrave handbook of critical theory, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

This chapter discusses the many uses and abuses of the Lukácsian theory and compares them with the actual content of Lukács's early Marxist work. It presents the core of Lukács's argument in something like its original meaning and considers its significance for the Frankfurt School, which drew on Lukács's theory of reification despite strong reservations. The author outlines his own understanding of Lukács's theory, and then indicates some of the various ways in which Adorno, Marcuse, and Jürgen Habermas take up its themes. He considers the critiques of Lukács in Adorno, Habermas, and Axel Honneth, and explains his disagreements with their attempts to come to terms with this influential and inconvenient predecessor. In conclusion, the chapter returns to some suggestive hints in Honneth and Marcuse that could form the basis for further development of Lukács's concept of resistance.

Cited authors

Honneth Axel

Lukács György

Marx Karl

Habermas Jürgen

Adorno Theodor