Theory video: Georg Lukacs and Reification (Patreon)

For this week's theory video I've selected an introductory lecture into the philosopher George Lukacs, delivered by Chris Nineham. Often neglected Lukacs was one of the great Marxist philosophers of the 20th century. Particularly, Lukacs work on class consciousness and alienation is crucial to contemporary political movements. While many of his colleagues were making deterministic arguments about the end of capitalism, Lukacs analyzed how capitalism could maintain its hegemony developing the theory of reification. Reification is the process where capitalist social relations become seen as inherent and natural instead of imposed systems of exploitation. It is a good time to revisit this analysis. 

-David Griscom