Reification (plus reading group suggestions)

Fredy Perlman – The Reproduction of Everyday Lifehttp://theoryandpractice.org.uk/library/reproduction-everyday-life-fredy-perlman-1969Fredy Perlman – Introduction to I I Rubin's Essays on ValueIt's on libcom but libcom is down at the minute so can't provide linkAll that the word means is that abstract concepts are given living characteristics e.g. "Money works"When translating from German the word "Objectification" is often used as well.I actually read "History and Class Consciousness" when I was into the Situationists, to be honest it may be overrated.

The 1967 Preface is rather peculiar, there's self-criticism and there's Lukacs self-criticism!  He is very harsh on himself. His mistake in confusing the concept of alienation in Hegel with Marx's concept  "invalidates some of the assumptions"  of  the book but the issues at the heart of the book remain valid argued Lucio Colletti in 1974. I have been reading on Hegel, Marx, alienation and the 1967 Lukacs preface and have doubts about Lukacs misgivings. For Hegel objectification = alienation, therefore when subject-object transcends alienation it must transcend objectification – Object is alienated from self-consciousness, to take it back into Subject means end of objective reality and thus of any reality at all ! Lukacs believes. What is Lukacs saying here ? Reality is abolished ?  But I thought Hegal and alienation was failure to realise world was not external to spirit, alienation cease when men see environment part of spirit then they would be free, that is aim of history, the transition to the totality of objective essential-reality (Kojeve), for Hegel history of man is history of man's alienation from its own essence, and abolition of alienation is subject is taking back object into subject as mentioned earlier. Hegel's alienation is different to Marx's concept.I will be talking about Hegel, Marx and Alienation at my head office talk on 20th January.Steve Clayton

Sounds good, hope it will be recorded.

Marx was not the only person influenced by Hegel. There was a school of British philosophy in the 19th century which saw no need to stand Hegel on his head, but were quite satisfied with the way he was — as an idealist philosopher.In an essay on "Oxford and British Idealism" in Oxford Philosophy 2012 Bill Mander writes of this school:

This mumbo-jumbo seems nearer to Hegel's thought than some other interpretations. He was an idealist and religious philosopher. For him "alienation" began with the "Fall of Man" (when Adam ate the apple) and will end when "Man" is reconciled with "God"  and History comes to an end. Not much for us there, i'd have thought.

I guess it's all tied in with commodity fetishism and how material relations amongst people appear as social relations between things. How Capital appears to grow due to the mere fact of being capital, when it is surplus labour that is actually responcible for the expansion. It's to do with the opacity of social relations in a capitalist economy.I.I Rubin's Essays on Marx's Theory on Value I like. Here's the chapter most relevant.. Don't know if any people here have read it?http://www.marxists.org/archive/rubin/value/ch03.htmAnd here's the Perlman introduction I spoke abouthttp://libcom.org/library/commodity-fetishism-fredy-perlman

If you find the Rubin article useful and want to read the whole book, I would be up for doing a joint reading / note sharing. Think this is one of those books worth reading a few times. Just an idea.In fact, this is something that could be done via this forum if people are game.