Karl Mannheim and Hungarian Marxism

137 Pages·1991·11.434 MB·English

by  Joseph Gabel

MANNHEIM
AND
HUNGARIAN MARXISM

MANNHEIM
AND
HUNGARIAN MARXISM
Joseph Gabel
Translated by
William M. Stein and James McCrate
First published 1991 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 9~0506
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gabel, Joseph.
[Mannheim ct le marxisme hongrois. English]
Mannheim and Hungarian marxism I Joseph Gabel.
p. em.
Translation of: Mannheim et le marxisme hongrois.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-88738-377-7
1. Communism-Hungary. 2. Mannheim, Karl, 1893-1947-Influence.
I. Title.
HX260.5.A6G3313 1990
335.43'09439-dc20 90-40506
CIP
ISBN 13: 978-0-88738-377-9 (hbk)
This book is dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Jozsef
Spielmann, my friend, eminent scholar, and distinguished scientist
in the field of history of medicine and sociology, whose thoughts and
ideas have constantly inspired me.
— Ave Atque Vale
For Huguette with my deepest affection
For my friends David Frank Allen and Michèle Allen

Contents
Preface ix
Part I: Hungarian Marxism 1
1. The Socio-Historical Context of Hungarian Marxism 3
2. Three Representative Figures: Erwin Szabo,
Paul Szende, and Bela Fogarasi 15
3. Hungarian Marxism after 1920 25
Part II: Karl Mannheim 31
4. Mannheim and the French Public: The Controversy over
Ideology and Utopia 33
5. Ideology and False Consciousness 39
6. The Problem of the “Socially Unattached Intelligentsia” 59
7. Mannheim’s Second Period (Writings in Emigration) 69
8. Utopian Consciousness 83
9. Critique of Mannheim’s Sociology of Knowledge 91
10. Socially Determined Thought and Historical Materialism:
Mannheim and Marxism 103
Bibliography 119
vii

Preface
Mannheim’s fate in France is characterized by a curious contrast
between the astounding modernity of some of his views and their limited
impact on French intellectual life. One needs only to compare the
substantial article by Lucien Goldmann on Lukács in the Encyclopaedia
Universalis with the unsigned note, brief but intelligent, attributed to
Mannheim. In the recently published Dictionnaire des Oeuvres Poli-
tiques (Paris, 1986), Ideology and Utopia is unjustly absent. Neverthe­
less there are certain indications that Mannheim’s years of oblivion in
France are coming to an end. His name appears more and more frequently
in bibliographies —in those of Raymond Boudon’s works among oth­
ers — and the Dictionnaire des Philosophes (Paris P.U.F. 1984) offers an
intelligent article on Mannheim by Remy Hess. It will not however be
possible to speak of a genuine turning point in his French literary career
until the day the windows of Parisian bookstores display a translation of
Ideology and Utopia worthy of that name.
I consider that the work bearing that title, published in 1956 by Marcel
Rivière (Paris), is not really a translation. It is very close to the English
edition of 1936 where the “translators” —probably with Mannheim’s
implied consent —largely distorted its message in order to ensure its
favorable reception by Anglo-Saxon academe. They succeeded in their
objective; several editions of Ideology and Utopia have been published
in the United States, and Mannheim’s work had considerable influence
in the Anglo-Saxon world. But the requirements of American academia
in 1936 were different from those of French university life in 1956. The
biased translation, which has become the key to its success among
Anglo-Saxon readers, was one of the very reasons for its failure in
France.
In 1936, the major themes of intellectual life in Weimar Germany were
only starting to gain ground in the United States. The distinction well
established in Germany between the sociology of knowledge and the
ix