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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Subjective and objective class consciousness
Treating false consciousness more and more as a universal phenomenon, Lukács distinguishes between the manifest thought and will of ‘historical individuals’, who may be persons, peoples or classes, and the laws that govern their actions. Their actually entertained consciousness does not – at least not invariably – reflect the true nature of the reality in which the individuals act and which they shape. The effectiveness which empirically observable consciousness displays is no proof against, but is even likely to attest, false consciousness. The really effective forces in history are ultimately independent of the psychological consciousness of men and guarantee the rational course and outcome of historical development. At the same time, these effective forces also determine the degree of imprecise consciousness which classes entertain about their situation. Considered ‘formally in an abstract manner’, class consciousness, which is in conformity with the objective situation of a class, conditions the latter's unconsciousness of its situation, that is, its ‘false consciousness’. Put in the terms of the famous Marxian formula, Lukács is saying that, because being determines consciousness, actually entertained consciousness is false; whereas if objective consciousness were experienced, it would consist of the awareness of determination and of its outcome.
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