History of Class Consciousness contains one of Georg Lukacs most prominent theories, the theory of reification.

Drawing heavily from Marxist tradition, Lukacs reification is rooted in Marxs commodity fetishism. However, unlike Marx, Lukacs suggests that reification extends further than the commodification of capitalist mode of production. For Lukacs, reification effect is pervasive, sinking deep into the structure of capitalist society. He arrived in his theory by examining advance capitalist society in the early 20th century. By employing Webers idea of instrumental rationality, Lukacs suggests that reification in the advanced capitalist age have created not only commodification, but a total reification of consciousness. This essay will concentrate on these theories that shaped Lukacs perspective of capitalism in the modern world. The aim of the paper is to explore his dialectical journey via Marx and Webers theories in History and Class Consciousness. To understand Lukacs theory, it is imperative to begin by discussing Marxs idea of commodity fetishism. According to Marx, commodity fetishism is a phenomenon that exists in the age of modern capitalism, made possible by the capitalist mode of production. In this mode of production, the relations between producer and the products of their labour no longer appear as social relations but in the form of economic relations. The increasingly fragmentised mode of production creates an estrangement that the value of the commodity can no longer be determined through its social relations with the producer. Instead, the only relations these commodities appear to have are the economic relations in market exchange or fantastic form of relation between things (Marx 1990, 165). The commodity is treated as if it possesses inherent values to affect the market exchange. This process of giving thing a commodity autonomy is what Marx means by commodity having a fetish characteristic (Marx 1990, 164-65). Thus, reification for Marx is the product of capitalism which alienation and atomisation of individuals labour become so impenetrable by human perception that it can only be understood as a collection of relations between things. While Lukacs shares Marxs concern about the reified economy, this abstraction of human labour from their commodities is merely a starting point for Lukacs to point out his main concern,How far is commodity exchange be able to influence the total outer and inner life of society? (Lukacs 1971, 84). This essay will argue that Lukacs answers this question by incorporating Webers theory of instrumental rationality as a way to extend Marxs idea of reification in the modern world. This theory of instrumental rationality is the vital substructure that underlies Lukacs idea and his conclusion that reification has successfully dominated human consciousness.

Webers instrumental rationality can be understood as a sense of cultural nilihism a valueless method of reasoning that is concerned solely with maximising efficiency and finding the most logical step to achieve end (Gane 2002, 23). Weber argued that the modern world is organised through a rational that is concerned with calculability and less valueoriented principles (Gane 2002, 23). This instrumental rationality can be traced back to capitalist mode of production, where rationalisation characterises every step of production process. To allow the split between subject and object to occur, the production process has to reject the notion of the organic and the natural. Thus, work processes in advanced capitalist system is always concerned with things that calculable and predictable, comfortably distancing itself from the organic/natural/irrational. As capitalist society advances, every stage of production is further fragmentised and specialised that finally, a commodity is likely to be connected with one another in a highly reified manner rather than with the labour that produces it (the subject). Lukacs argues that in order to enable this reification of production, the capitalist system requires that the subjects life must also be rationalised using the same logic of instrumental rationality. As a result, humans are no longer the authentic master of their labour, but a mechanical part incorporated into a mechanical system in factories and companies (Lukacs 1971, 89). The mechanisation of work necessitates other parts of the subjects life to remould itself via the same instrumental rationalisation in order to protect the continuity of the production in the capitalist system. The inevitable result is every system that sustains society, such as jurisprudence, education and welfare, is similarly affected. It is bureaucratised, fragmentised and mechanised. Finally, Lukacs concludes that to achieve such task, reification must also stamps its imprint upon the whole consciousness of human life. Thus, in advance capitalist society, there is nothing natural or organic about human relationships; what remains are simply relations of objects or things under the shadow of commodity fetishism (Lukacs 1971, 100). Here we can conclude that via Weber, Lukacs is at his final conclusion that commodity fetishism necessitates the bureaucratisation of life as a whole. Reification for Lukacs can be understood as the reification of human consciousness, grounded in reified capitalist production. This essay has concentrated on explaining the influence of two major theories that shaped Lukacs theory of reification in History and Class Consciousness. In this essay, it was demonstrated that Lukacs began his theory with Marxs commodity fetishism. Lukacs then creatively weave Webers theory of instrumental rationality into his understanding of capitalist mode of production. Lukacs suggests that rationalisation process of work life must
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also warrant the rationalisation of life as a whole. He then concluded that the problem of reification is indeed a problem of reified consciousness. To conclude, it is clear that this essay has displayed how Lukacs theory of reification is a product of his unique dialectic between Marxs commodity fetishism and Webers instrumental rationality.

Bibliography Lukacs, G 1971, Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat, in R Livingstone (trans.), History and Class Consciousness, Merlin Press, London. Gane, N 2002, Max Weber and Postmodern Theory: Rationalization versus Re-Enchantment, Palgrave Macmillan. Marx, K 1990, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, vol. 1, Penguin, New York.