Schelling, Hegel, Marx and Lukács

society as a totality in historical development

Abstract

The present article briefly and schematically presents some ideas related to the perspective of totality and historicism in the understanding of social being. To do so, it draws upon the thought of classical German philosophy (especially Schelling and Hegel), as well as the works of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Georg Lukács. The central idea that structures this text is that current social relations can only be correctly understood as a complex and antagonistic totality in historical development, with the overriding moment being the dominant mode of social production. In this sense, it is concluded by presenting the Marxist-Lukacsian position regarding the relationship between the totality of social relations and individuals, mediated by various social complexes, conceived as inseparable terms of the historical development of social being.