A Study On Lukács' Theory Of Reification

Reification is the core issue in Lukács' early work History and Class Consciousness.In the early 20 th century,some new phenomena appeared in the development of capitalism,including the implementation of the Taylor system,the prevalence of bureaucracy and the decline of revolutionary consciousness.In the face of these new phenomena,Lukács takes Marx's theory of commodity fetishism and Weber's rationalization theory as the theoretical background to support his own theory through Combining the two viewpoints organically to form its own unique reification theory.Facing the new phenomena occurred along the development of capitalism,Lukács sharply points out that with the implementation of the Taylor system and the refinement of division of labor,rationalization based on computability has increasingly become the principle of production process,Reification has gone from the field of production relations to the field of production process.Phantom objectivity turns to rational autonomy,and even reification has penetrated into the field of consciousness.The emergence of reified consciousness is the most direct reason for the depression of proletarian revolutionary consciousness.Facing with an increasingly autonomous and calculable world,Lukács felt that the subjectivity is losing.Lukács believes that only by restoring the dialectics of totality can we break through the reification phenomena and reshape the subjectivity of human beings.We should abandon the positivist and reified way of thinking and restore the subjective status of human beings during the historical process.Eliminate the binary opposition between subject and object,and correctly understand that man is not only the author of history,but also the actor of history.By awakening the revolutionary consciousness of the proletariat,the proletarian revolution will win finally.Lukács' reification theory has exerted great influence,such as Herbert Marcuse and Axel Honneth.If Lukács still held great hope for the proletarian revolution,Marcuse believes that the possibility of revolution erupting is negligible,after analyzing modern technology has become a new means of domination.Honneth,the third-generation leader of Frankfurt School,analyzed the issue from another angle,hedid not criticize reification just like Lukács and Marcuse,but made a detailed inquiry into the premise of reification.What is the original state of a real person? He concluded that the state of non-reification is actually the state of sympathy and participation,which called recognition theory.Whether it's Lukács or Marcuse or Hornett,the reason why they paid attention to reification is that there are always unreasonable factors in reasonable societies.Basically,what they really concerned is the fundamental existence of human beings.