A Történelem és osztálytudat centenáriumának alkalmából a Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies miniszimpóziumot rendez az Albertai Egyetemen április 14-én. 

A szimpóziumon intézetünk kutatója, Szabados Bettina meghívott előadást tart Crisis, Absoluteness, Decision: Lukács's Way to Marxism címmel. A konferencia programja elérhető ITT.

Az előadás összefoglalója:

Crisis, Absoluteness, Decision: Lukács's Way to Marxism

“In my own view my development advanced step by step (…). So the only logical place to begin is in fact at the start of the process.” – this is how György Lukács reflected on his life and philosophy in one of his late interviews (Record of a Life). Lukács became world-known as a Marxist theorist, although at the beginning of his career he once thought, the socialism does not have the capability to stop the bourgeoisie. Lukács’s arrival to Marxism happened not because he struggled socially and had unacceptable life conditions: it was a philosophical and ethical decision. However, his early philosophical thinking reflected on the problems of the era. I argue that the cultural, social, political and economic problems of the Hungarian and East-Central-European milieu had an impact on Lukács’s thinking and his philosophy cannot be discussed without this aspect. At the turn of the century the Austro-Hungarian Empire was struggling with the dissatisfaction of the minorities, the conditions of a half-feudal economy and political inequality. In the Hungarian intellectual milieu, the bourgeoisie cannot create the intellectual foundation for solving the problems. The bourgeoisie according to Lukács is the basis of the aestheticism: the feeling of the “everything-is-relative”. Lukács was struggling to find a way out of it in philosophy, his aim is to create a basis, a form, which brings absoluteness in the cultural crisis. However, Lukács’s philosophical experiments were not limited only to his essays: the questions of his philosophy are also appeared in his life. How to be a philosopher? How to create the absoluteness in life? How theory can be praxis? These were actual questions of Lukács, which formed his life-decisions. Interpretating Lukács’s philosophy is also parallel with his way of life: Lukács realized his philosophy in his life. Therefore, trying to understand his way to Marxism must be approached from the aspect of the socio-cultural milieu and from Lukács’s personal dilemmas. In my talk my aim is to give a picture about Lukács’s intellectual development to Marxism and how his dilemmas have been rearranged in the light of the problems of his era and his individual decisions.