Ideology as a Function. Lukács and the Ontology of the Social Being

Abstract

In the early Sixties Georg Lukács started a research in order to recover and develop the social ontological dimension of Marx's works, with the intent of renovating Marxist reflection after the inhibitory effect of Stalinism. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze Lukács's conception of "ideology" as "social function”, linking it with the "social complexity" system described in Lukács's last work, the Ontology of social being. Taking in high consideration the goethean idea of "original phenomena" associated by Lukács with the one of "labour", I propose a new regard on the Reflection theory proposed in the Ontology. In particular, I will show the role ideology must logically assume in a society whose main task is the production of the future.