Lukács’s concept of the whole as logos in the age of fragmentation. The precariat as a way to knowledge

Abstract

Lukács’s concept of the whole as logos in the age of fragmentation. The precariat as a way to knowledge. – Logos in the shape of the thought of the whole is, besides other things, represented by Lukács’s philosophy. This theoretical line has nearly vanished in contemporary social thought – witness a critical stance on the idea of the whole in post-Marxism. I sketch Badiou’s set criticism of the concept of the whole and conclude that his criticism involves a performative contradiction. I argue that Badiou’s criticism does not hold for Lukács’s concept of the whole. With recapitulating Lukács’s theory I highlight “imputed class consciousness” as a precondition for opening the perspective of the social whole.