Reification and Recognition: A New Look at an Old Idea

Abstract

During the 1920s and the 1930s, the notion of reification brought about recurring themes that concerned social and cultural critique. This term was used to describe the increasing level of unemployment, the economic crisis, and other such historical events that characterized the Weimar Republic. By combining concepts adapted from prominent philosophers such as Karl Marx, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel, George Lukács was able to come up with a three-part dissertation—“Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat” which prompted that the forms of life in such circumstances be examined as a consequence of social reification. This chapter illustrates four indicators which demonstrate how the term reification has veered away from the definition it acquired from the Weimar Republic and has moved toward a more theoretical discourse.

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