O conceito de reificação em História e consciência de classe, de Georg Lukács

Abstract

In this work we will initially investigate the category of totality, through which Lukács articulates the problem of reification. After that we will analyze the smallest and nuclear unit from which the structure of reification unfolds itself: the commodity. Next we will show how the commodity exchange, as the main form of interchange between human beings, affects the whole structure of their consciousness in such a way that it turns the proletarian into a bizarre hybrid of human and non-human, the so called “commodity conscious of itself”. Lastly, we will investigate how the proletariat, being the identical subject-object of the historical process, might overcome reification through a transforming praxis on the social reality.