Abstract

The recent translation of History and Class Consciousness with a new “Preface” written in 1967, and the publication of Gespräche mit Lukács now allow an all-embracing critical study of Lukács' theoretical and political thought. As is well known, after having rejected his own conceptions of the dialectic as contained in History and Class Consciousness, Lukács had never given a new all-inclusive reformulation.

In the Gespräche mit Lukács, the Hungarian philosopher places as the basis of his philosophy the Marxian principle according to which there is only one science of history which goes from astronomy to sociology. Reality is a process, a development and a dialectic in each of its three fundamental forms (inorganic, organic, and social), in the connection of these forms, and in each of the many partial wholes.