History, Philosophy, Commitment. György Lukács on the Role of Intellectuals

Abstract

In my study, I explore how György Lukács thought about the social function of intellectuals, especially with regard to the moral burden of choosing between the alternatives offered by history. To this end, I will refer to two of his writings in which he sought to give an account of the role he considered to be the most important of modern intellectuals: one is the 1919 article “Intellectual Workers and the Problem of Intellectual Leadership”, and the other is his 1933 essay “Grand Hotel Abyss”. It is clear from these studies that Lukács considered intellectuals as a special social „formation”: he treated it as a stratum that never (because it could never) becomes a unified class in the course of history, yet it has a role of decisive importance for the development of the fate of the world, a real mission in the philosophy of history,