Georg Lukács and the Goethe Prize

Abstract

The article is devoted to intellectual evolution of the Hungarian philosopher and ideologue Georg Lukács (1885–1971) whose theoretical and political development reveals the character of the 20th century in a special way. In the first part of the article, the author, starting from the fact that Lukács was awarded the Goethe Prize in Frankfurt am Main (1970), analyzes the antithetical origins of his philosophical position. The views of the thinker were formed under the influence of the sociologic vision of history and the concept of the generic forces of Marx. However, inspired by German culture Lukács turned to the Goethe’s ideal of the creative personality, in order to overcome the methodological one-sidedness of the Marxist image of a man oriented towards the socialized concept of labor. In the second part of the article, the author focuses on the hidden source of Lukács’ position: Nietzsche’s metaphysics of power. He puts forward the thesis that the formation of Lukács’ revolution has been fed from the earliest times by the concepts of the philosophy of life. The subsequent involvement of the thinker in the ideological circle of the revolution and civil war weakened Nietzsche’s influence. However, it can be traced in Lukács’ interpretation of culture as the creativity of the proletariat’s liberated forces. The author raises the question of the extent of Lukács’ personal responsibility for violence, which the thinker understands as “the path to the rise and freedom of culture”, going exclusively through dictatorship. The central theme of the fourth part of the article is the ideological influence exerted by Lukács during the so-called “1968 revolution” in Germany, as well as a critical moral assessment of this influence. Refs 40.