Reification, Abstraction, Idealism. Georg Lukács on the Categorial Form of Capitalism

Katherina Kinzel

doi:10.1017/S1369415425101039

Reification, Abstraction, Idealism. Georg Lukács on the Categorial Form of Capitalism

Katherina Kinzel^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

OFR - History of Philosophy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Georg Lukács’s History and Class Consciousness (1923) has often been criticised for its idealism. I discuss Lukács’s critique of reification in light of these charges, identifying two different idealist vocabularies of (neo-)Kantian and Hegelian origin, respectively. I show that the function of the former is critical: refracting Marx’s analysis of social form through a Kantian form/content distinction allows Lukács to critique capitalism as the domination of form over content. Lukács’s Hegelian leanings are more problematic, however, as they constrain his own insights into the conditioned and contingent character of political practice and history.

Original language	English
Number of pages	20
Journal	Kantian Review
Early online date	22 Jan 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S1369415425101039
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 22 Jan 2026

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Kantian Review.

Keywords

Georg Lukács
critical theory
neo-Kantianism
philosophy of history
reification

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10.1017/S1369415425101039Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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Reification, Abstraction, Idealism. Georg Lukács on the Categorial Form of Capitalism

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Keywords

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