The New Hungarian Quarterly, 1987 (28. évfolyam, 106. szám)

Aczél György: The Timeliness of György Lukács (Part II.)

THE TIMELINESS OF GYÖRGY LUKÁCS by GYÖRGY ACZÉL C ontempt for the individual, treating him as a negligible quantity was adequate to and corresponds to an image of socialism and practice which dictates only from above and believes that the leadership alone represents, knows and embodies the Universal, Progress, So­cialism. This attitude leaves no room for the actual role of the individual and the community, the communal individual, democratic public life, and does not open up a path towards meaningful autonomy. It is alien to Marxism if only the individual is recognised only as part of the masses who may not yet have identified his interests, but is sure to identify them if he is adequately regulated. It is obvious that neither history nor a Marxist interpretation of history accords with such expectations. Lukács was led by the possibility and hope for the realisation of a demo­cratic image of socialism when he emphasised the history forming role of the individual, that importance of personal choice and of personal decision. “Back to Marx and forward towards the new reality”—this was an inten­tion he kept on reiterating. To do this, he had to overcome a number of pre­judices which had settled on Marxism in earlier years. In his Ontology he goes back to the fundamental philosophic question of the fullness of social existence, in order to move on from this basis to the laying of theoretical foundations for the renewal of socialism, for its rebirth through radical re­forms. Some people have asked and continue to ask how it was possible that a thinker of such stature was willing to accept party discipline, and in his self-criticisms often surrendered his intellectual autonomy. And he did all this while he was repeatedly subjected to severe and unjust attacks and The first part of this essay was published in NHQ 105

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