What is the theory of reification?
Reification, according to Lukács, means taking social relations for things. An institution, for example, a university, is in reality a complex of social relations, but it appears as a solid and substantial thing like a natural object. The theory of reification thus explains the relation of structure to agency.
What is reified consciousness?
ABSTRACT: The concept of reification is used by Marx to describe a form of social consciousness in which human relations come to be identified with the physical properties of things, thereby acquiring an appearance of naturalness and inevitability.
Who developed the theory of reification?
Lukács’s
Lukács’s theory of reification, explained in his 1923 work, History and Class Consciousness, is often interpreted as a theory of ideology, but it is also a theory of social practice and a work of social ontology.
What is cultural reification?
Rather than a product of comparison, the reification of culture—the tendency to turn names into things—may be inherent in the act of naming (Appadurai, 1996). Thus, the act of naming itself contributes to homogenization and cultural conservatism (Appiah, 1992; Said, 1978).
What is a reified concept?
Reification is a complex idea for when you treat something immaterial — like happiness, fear, or evil — as a material thing. This can be a way of making something concrete and easier to understand, like how a wedding ring is the reification of a couple’s love.
Which concept of Marx was the basis for Lukac’s concept of reification?
Instead of being an effect of the structural character of social systems such as capitalism, as Karl Marx and György Lukács argued, Honneth contends that all forms of reification are due to pathologies of intersubjectively based struggles for recognition.
What does the word reification mean?
Definition of reify transitive verb. : to consider or represent (something abstract) as a material or concrete thing : to give definite content and form to (a concept or idea) … a culture can be reified into a body of traditions …— M. J. Herskovits.
What is reification in simple terms?
Reification is when you think of or treat something abstract as a physical thing. Reification is a complex idea for when you treat something immaterial — like happiness, fear, or evil — as a material thing. However, reification is often considered a sign that someone is thinking illogically.
What is self reification?
In his lectures on reification, Axel Honneth (2008, pp. 65–73) writes of an important aspect of reification which involves a self-reification; the manner in which we treat our thoughts and experiences, as fixed, thing-like and as property that can be owned and produced.
