Varn Vlog: Amogh Sahu on the Difficulties of Georg Lukacs

Amogh Sahu is a PhD student in Philosophy at Columbia University. He works on the intersection between Hegelian Marxism and Contemporary Analytic Philosophy. He also used to co-host a show with your host that was called Symptomatic Redness. We discuss the difficulties of the Lukacs and the history of Marxism in more detail.
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Crew:
Host: C. Derick Varn
Cohost of Excavations: Jordin Dubin
Cohost of Vulgar Complexity: Abi Hassen
Audio Producer: Paul Channel Strip ( @aufhebenkultur )
Intro Music: Spaceship Revolution by Etienne Roussel (Grim Intro), Bitterlake (Political Intro), Bitterlake (Strange Intro)
Outro Music: Bitterlake
Intro and Outro Video Design: Djene Bajalan (Grim Intro, Political Intro, Outro), Bitterlake (Strange Intro)
Art Design: Corn ( / cornflow ) and C. Derick Varn

[@dada.int.unlmtd]

where Diogenis plugs a chicken and throws it at you. Good one! :D

[@meganmaghfada4286]

I love that Logical Positivism came up in the conversation. Totally didn't see that coming. Lol

[@DugongClock]

What happened with yourself and Ezri? No more Mortal Science? Your episodes on Swampside were the best ones by a long shot.

[@VarnVlog]

Ezri and I don’t talk.

[@DugongClock]

@@VarnVlog How about Tom O’Brien? Is the Emancipation Network over?

[@onled1]

55:00 wait what happened with the swampside folks? I thought you were still doing the mortal science show with them

[@conor3754]

Big fan, but I gotta say the opening critique of standpoint theory is off base. So crucial to Lukacs' standpoint theory is the worker selling their labor power, and the analysis of the commodity form. It's because the worker sells their labor power (or better still, we might say the worker is a commodity) that they potentially have access to what underlies the commodity form, which is of course, in no small part, the worker's own activity; and yes, for these reasons, they can have access to the Totality. Those things are not perceptible to the bourgeoise given their structural position within the economy, rather the world appears to the them as reified (as a thing, the actual emergence of which can not be accounted for), and this ideology (or standpoint) is of course transmitted to the prols. Standpoint theory is not a voluntaristic thing that people merely assume, and we know this is true because dominant social relations coerce people into behaving according to the bourgeois' standpoint! Indeed, we start off with reified consciousness, alienated from our own activity and it's results.
The question as to how one demystifies themselves of such an ideology (ie. arrives at class consciousness) is of course a loaded discussion, but I suspect that one would have to inculcate themselves in a different form of social life. Say, something like, a party.
Sorry, this comment is way too long, but hey. That's life. Love the channel!

[@VarnVlog]

This does not actually answer my critique about the differences between structure and qualia of the economy nor does “we know that this is true” stand becuase the concepts make the tautological assumptions necessary… there is no counter proof possible until it is undone.

[@VarnVlog]

And the comment is not too long and thanks for it

[@VarnVlog]

That said, my critique of stand point is a critique of latter versions of it that were “based” off Lukacs but didn’t really use his methodology

[@brymtb]

Thanks

[@alaspooryorick9946]

In terms of Marx and Ireland, someone's working on Engels and Ireland at the mo, I can't remember who.... maybe Marcello Musto? I know Engels was writing a whole long form history of Ireland at the end of his life and that someone's working on it.

[@ludviglidstrom6924]

The bashing of Vivek Chibber was really funny!

[@alaspooryorick9946]

I think the Logical Positivism enthusiast professor you're thinking of is Liam Bright. He's very interesting, great work on scientific fraud and such.

[@ludviglidstrom6924]

In quantum mechanics there are things happening without any cause whatsoever, true randomness.

[@RobertB0H]

I'm pretty sure the three Frankfurt school guys who worked for the OSS were Marcuse, Neumann and Kirchheimer. Paul Sweezy also worked for the OSS

[@VarnVlog]

I always forget Kirchheimer. It’s funny that there is so much attempt to imply Adorno and Horkheimer did by people like Rockhill but they forgive Marcuse

[@galek75]

​@@VarnVlogRockhill is a top notch twat