Abstract

From his earliest writings as a communist Georg Lukacs was concerned with the place of the individual in Marxist theory and practice. Notwithstanding the importance of objective social conditions, a Marxist ontology must advocate the realization of the transformative capacities of individuals — the development of knowledge, the necessity of understanding, thinking and action as resting on a correct choice between alternatives, and the mastery of self. A necessary foundation for the full realization of human potential is to understand the process by which people can emerge from the ordinary experience of existing social conditions and become capable of, and prepared to engage in, the transformation of social reality. For Lukács, these are continuous themes found in his political and philosophical work, and in his literary criticism.