The Place of Law in Lukács’ World Concept

222 Pages·2012·11.391 MB·English

by  Csaba Varga

THE PLACE OF LAW IN LUKÁCS’ WORLD CONCEPT

THE PLACE OF LAW IN
LUKÁCS’ WORLD CONCEPT
by
CSABA VARGA
SZENT ISTVÁN TÁRSULAT
Budapest 2012
Translated by
JUDITPETRÁNYI(Introduction & Chapters 1–2)
SÁNDORESZENYI(Chapters 3–6 & Appendix)
CSABAVARGA(Postscript)
Translation revised by
JEREMYPAYNE(Introduction, Chapters 1–6 & Appendix)
MARGARETTABLER(Postscript)
Second edition
Reprint of Csaba Varga The Place of Law in Lukács’ World Concept
(Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó 1985; [reprint] 1998) 193 pp.
{ISBN 963 05 3877 6 & 963 15 7547 7}
[available at <http://drcsabavarga.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/varga-the-place-
of-law-in-lukacs’-world-concept-1985/> &
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/40055300/Varga-the-Place-of-Law-in-Lukacs-
World-Concept-1985>], with Postscript
Photos of Lukács: Table on Covers One and Four are by Dóra Maurer
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means,
or transmitted, or translated into machine language without the written
permission of the copyright holder
© Csaba Varga, Budapest 2012
© (photos on covers) Dóra Maurer, Budapest 2012
ISBN 978 963 277 284 4
Szent István Társulat
1053 Budapest, Veres Pálné utca 24.
Felelôs kiadó. Dr. Rózsa Huba alelnök
Felelôs kiadóvezetô: Farkas Olivér igazgató
CONTENTS
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Introduction: Lukács and the Problems of Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Part One
PRELIMINARY SKIRMISHES WITH THE QUESTIONS OF LAW
Chapter 1 ENCOUNTERS OF THE YOUNG LUKÁCS WITH LAW 23
1.1 Legal Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1.2 Friendship with Felix Somló . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1.3 Relationship with Gustav Radbruch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Chapter 2 GLORIFICATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN
HISTORY AND CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.1 The Search for a Way Opposed to Institutions:
Law as Force and as Consciousness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.2 Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat
and its Dramatized Legal Conception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.3 Messianism as the Core of Lukács’ Preconception . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Chapter 3 PROVISIONAL SUMMARIES AND QUESTION MARKS 59
3.1 Ruthlessness and its Trap in The Destruction of Reason . . . . . . . . 59
3.2 Allusions to a Synthesis in The Specificity of the Aesthetic . . . . . . 66
Part Two
THE ONTOLOGY: A COPERNICAN REVOLUTION
Chapter 4 THE ONTOLOGICAL APPROACH AS
A METHODOLOGICAL POSSIBILITY OF TRANSCENDING
SOCIALIST NORMATIVISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.1 The Genesis and Methodological Significance of the Ontology . . 71
4.2 Socialist Legal Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.2.1 The Revolutionary Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.2.2 The Roots and Manifestations of Socialist Normativism . . . 81
4.2.3 The Need for Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.3 The Making of an Ontological Approach to Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Chapter 5 THE ONTOLOGICAL CONCEPT OF LAW . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.1 Law as a Complex of Mediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.1.1 Complex of Complexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.1.2 Complexes or Social Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.1.3 The Interaction of Complexes: Mediation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.2 Law as Objectification and as Actual Functioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
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5.2.1 The Genesis of Law and the Dialectics of the Use
of Coercion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.2.2 Positive Law and Natural Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.2.3 The Inner Contradiction of Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.2.4 Legal Superstructure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.3 Is Law a Reflection of Reality? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.3.1 Teleology and Causality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.3.2 Reflection of Reality and the Question of Incongruence . . . 125
5.3.3 The Nature of Juridical Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.3.4 Validity as a Distinctive Quality of Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
5.4 Law in Action: Formal Legality versusSocial Optimum . . . . . . . 138
5.4.1 Components of Law-Observance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
5.4.2 Law and Logic: Subsumption and Manipulation . . . . . . . . . 145
5.4.3 “Jurist’s World View” and the Ideology of the
Legal Profession . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Chapter 6 THE ONTOLOGICAL APPROACH AS A HORIZON
IN THE GENERAL RENEWAL OF MARXISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
APPENDIX: “THING” AND REIFICATION IN LAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
A.1 “Thing” or Reification in Marxist Philosophy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
A.2 Concepts of “Thing” as Fictions in the Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
A.3 Objectification, Reification and Alienation as Qualities
of the Existence of Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
A.3.1 Objectification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
A.3.2 Reification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
A.3.3 Alienation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
A.4 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Nameindex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Subject index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Index of Lukács’ Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
POSTSCRIPT: THE CONTEMPORANEITY OF LUKÁCS’ IDEAS
WITH MODERN SOCIAL THEORETICAL THOUGHT
(The Ontology of Social Beingin Social Science Reconstructions –
with Regards to Constructs like Law) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
P.1 Ontologies and The Ontology of Social Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
P.2 Some Key Terms of LUKÁCS’ Ontology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
P.3 The Ontology of Social Beingas Applied to Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
P.4 Gattungswesenand Alienation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Index of Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
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