This is most assuredly the greatest book of Marxists philosophy, since the death of Marx. It's a real philosophical, moral, and political tragedy, that Lukacs was essentially rebuked and quarantined by the communist state he was defending. I've heard before that Lukacs was a Stalinist, but clearly the people spouting this claptrap have not read his essay on Reification. Long before the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts were published, Lukacs was able to read in Marx's theory of the commodity fetish, nearly his entire theory of alienation, and reorient Marxism in a humanist direction. This is no small feat, as the commodity fetish is a very small subsection, maybe 5-10 pages, in a 900 page book. For those critics, like Althusser, who claim Marx jettisoned his theory of alienation, and humanism, in Capital, one wonders how Lukacs found it in capital, when it's never made explicit. I wager it's because Lukacs really is a genius, and a great philosophic mind, who went unappreciated, and remains unappreciated. Had the soviets, and communists, of his era, taken his philosophy more seriously, there's a chance these states would not have become such abject dungeons. And for the dungeon masters, we can quickly see why Lukacs had to be cast aside.
Now there are some sections of this book that went right over my head. When Lukacs begins to wrestle with Kant, and all the subsequent German Idealists, I was lost. His arguments seem valid, but I'm in no learned position to weigh on this definitively. Nonetheless, his essays on dialectics, Rosa Luxemburg, the law, and class consciousness, are definitely positive contributions to philosophy. If Marx has spent all his time writing philosophy, instead of mastering Political Economy, I'm fairly certain this would be the book he would have written. Of course Marx would have also rebuked anyone for spending all their time writing Philosophy, but Lukacs gets a pass for having actually participated in his local Hungarian revolution. Much to the chagrin of his past sociological colleagues, he jettisoned his old schools of thought: Hegelianism, Durkheim's work, Weber, etc. and become a convicted Marxists from the revolution, until his death.
There's undoubtedly a religious element to Lukacs Marxism, in the entire book I saw him disagree with Marx once. Okay fine, he didn't actually disagree, he just said Marx should have elaborated a certain point more. But really, this is the type of propagandizing, and certainty we ought to be pushing in the school system, and demanding of all citizens (am I joking?). There's nothing wrong with the impeccable logic of: Marx said it, therefore it's true. In an era of religious Marxist fervor (i.e., right after the Bolshevik revolution), Lukacs may not be the MOST religious Marxists in the room (or maybe he is...), but he is certainly giving the best sermon, and offering the best philosophy.
He wrote one more book, that defends this book, from more determinist and Stalanistic critics. This book was recently found in Stalin's actual archives (I believe), and is now published. After grappling with Kant, I intend to re-read Lukacs theory of reification and weigh in on his critiques of Kant, and then perhaps read his subsequent book defending this one.
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