An Introduction to Lukács's Ontology of Social Being

Abstract

Knowing his commitment to writing the Ontology, a work eagerly awaited by all those interested in his thought, we had asked him, in a letter sent from Paris, where we were about to give some lectures on his Aesthetics, for news about this work. On January 14, 1971, he sent us this brief reply, which allows us to date the birth of the Prolegomena: "With the Ontology, things are progressing quite slowly. In the autumn, the first draft of a prolegomenon was ready (about 300-400 pages). I am still facing the problem of revision and possible rewriting. In the meantime, I also had a slight [indecipherable word] flu; however, at my age, the ability to work returns very slowly."