Michael's characaterization of Lukacs on reification is not quite right. It is true that L derived his notion of reification from Marx, specifically from Marx's extremely difficult notion of the fetishism of commodities, in which, among other things (for Marx), the power of the products of our labor over us because the operate in the market apart from our will. They make us things as they enter into relations like people, is the may Marx puts it. Now for L, this pattern is reflected in thought, particularly in ideology and philosophy. L trues to show how our understanding of society in fetishistic conditions mirrors the inversion of commdities, where the products of our thinking and activity appear to acquire a hostile life of their own. It's very tricky stuff. --jks
Michael said:
Lukacs used term/concept to identify/describe process Marx identified whereby worker becomes separated from product of own labor. Confronting work as 'thing apart,' worker is subordinated to 'reified' product of labor. Michael Hoover
>>