Reflection as “non-being” in Lukács’ ontology: a controversy of decades

Abstract

When he died in 1971, Georg Lukács left two manuscripts entitled Towards the ontology of social being and Prolegomena to the ontology of social being (respectively, the "big" and the "small ontology"). As is known, the terrain of ontological investigation was chosen by Lukács to, in the contemporary context, reaffirm Marx's theses about the radical historicity and sociability of the world of men and to demonstrate the ontological possibility (which should not be confused with immediate possibility ) of the socialist revolution. It is difficult to exaggerate the controversial nature, in the days we live in, of such a démarche.