Lukács's Critical Realism and the Place of Art Under the Banner of Bourgeois Class Ideas

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Philosophy of Art Department, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran

2 M.A. Student of Philosophy of Art, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan, Iran

Abstract

The bourgeois intellectual system is extremely incoherent and disjointed, and this incoherence is only one of the consequences of capitalism and its relations based on commodity relations and idolatry. Therefore, in Lukács's view, despite the dominance of bourgeois class ideas, only the proletariat has the ability to recognize the totality of the system and can act as a subject of revolution due to its special social position. In this intellectual system, art has an epistemological position, and critical realism, as Lukács's most prominent artistic theory, is meaningful only in this process of the proletariat's self-awareness and the development of the moment of revolution. The realist writer, who reflects the totality and culture of bourgeois societies, is the same subject of the proletariat that goes through the process of achieving self-consciousness and, by creating beautiful works and realistic reflections of the totality, helps the proletariat to develop and understand the contradictions of capitalist societies, as well as to understand its position as a social force. In this research, by collecting information and library data and using a descriptive-analytical method, we have answered this question: If the dominant ideas are those of the bourgeois class, how can the proletariat achieve general knowledge and change and transform relations? Also, how have writers who belong to the bourgeois class achieved understanding and knowledge of the general? While, according to Lukács, knowledge of the general is impossible for this class.

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References

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Journal of Philosophical Investigations
Volume 19, Issue 52 - Serial Number 52
Articles
No. 52 Autumn 2025
November 2025
Pages 587-606

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