The destruction of reason

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The Destruction of Reason is a work by the Hungarian Marxist philosopher Georg Lukács, first published in 1954 . In later editions the subtitle Der Weg des Irrationalismus von Schelling zu Hitler was added, which is also to be understood as a shortened summary.

History of origin

The story behind it is complex. In August 1933 Lukács had a typescript of more than 200 pages in Moscow. How did fascist philosophy come about in Germany? completed. A second typescript How Germany became the center of reactionary ideology was completed in Tashkent in 1942. This text has been shortened by the part about the social fascism of the SPD and already shows the lines of the destruction of reason . The two typescripts were edited by László Sziklai from the estate (Budapest 1982).

content

From Hegel's starting concept of "universal reason" Lukács interprets the entire German bourgeois philosophy of Hegel as reactionary and irrational response to the phenomenon of class struggle . The line of development of this thinking leads from Schelling's late work via Schopenhauer , Kierkegaard , Nietzsche and the philosophy of life to political effectiveness in fascism . This development can also be observed in the relatively young science of sociology ; Weber's liberal rationalism had been replaced by the metaphysical-theological concepts of Carl Schmitt and Othmar Spann .

Lukács defines irrationalism in terms of characteristics

"Degradation of understanding and reason, uncritical glorification of intuition, aristocratic epistemology, rejection of social and historical progress, creation of myths"

For Lukács, this irrationalism in the philosophical is primarily characterized by the fact that the possibility of knowledge is generally viewed as limited, instead of attempting further progress in knowledge by applying the method of dialectical materialism in the follow-up to Hegel . The highest stage of development of bourgeois philosophy was Hegel's dialectic; From the point of view of its concept of objective spirit, every individualistic position in philosophy should be assessed as irrational.

reception

This work in particular is "considered by many to be the lowest point in his long career". In the Historical Dictionary of Philosophy Lukács' concept of irrationalism is described as blanket and polemical , according to the opinion of the Hungarian philosopher any thinking that did not develop on the basis of Marxism is irrational, but this is not applicable.

The work was received partly positively and partly negatively among thinkers of the Marxist tradition. The Abendroth student Reinhard Kühnl , whose theory of fascism regards both liberal democracy and fascist dictatorship as forms of bourgeois rule, praised the work as an accurate analysis of the genesis of fascism in the history of ideas, which is also a fundamental political-philosophical strategy for the fight against fascism and the danger of war in the Present. The Destruction of Reason appeared shortly after the GDR philosophy was institutionalized and at the same time advanced to become a manual for the discipline of history and criticism of bourgeois ideology. Lukács, on the other hand, was accused of revisionism , especially after the philosopher's participation in the government of Imre Nagy in 1956. Theodor Adorno, on the other hand, sarcastically declared that the book most clearly shows the destruction of Lukács' own reason. He criticized: "Nietzsche and Freud simply became fascists for him, and he managed to bring himself to speak of Nietzsche's 'unusual talent' in the condescending tone of a Wilhelmine Provincial School Board”.

literature

  • Franco Volpi (ed.): Large dictionary of works of philosophy. Volume 2. Alfred Kröner, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83901-6 .
  • Till Kinzel: Setting the course for thinking: Georg Lukács' “Destruction of Reason” as a blueprint for political correctness. In: Dieter Stein (Hrsg.): Festschrift for Karlheinz Weißmann for his sixtieth birthday . Berlin 2019, pp. 141–148.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Lukács: The Destruction of Reason . Berlin (GDR) 1954, p. 10 f.
  2. ^ Udo Bermbach, Günter Trautmann: Georg Lukács. Opladen 1987, p. 191.
  3. ↑ Silvie Rücker: Irrationalism . In: Joachim Ritter , Karlfried founder: Historical dictionary of philosophy . Volume 4. Schwabe & Co. Verlag, Basel / Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 978-3-7965-0702-1 .
  4. ^ Reinhard Kühnl: Georg Lukács . In: Bernd Lutz (Hrsg.): Metzlers Philosophen-Lexikon 3rd edition. Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart-Weimar 2003, ISBN 3-476-01953-5 .
  5. ↑ Lukács - Rabbits in the Himalayas . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1963 ( online ).
  6. ^ Theodor W. Adorno: Notes on Literature II. Frankfurt am Main 1961, p. 153.