Lukdcs and Fascism 37 writers of the irrationalist current. It culminates in the work of Heidegger and Jaspers. Sociology as a social science is problematic because it describes processes without taking into consideration historical dimensions. In the Destruction of Reason Lukacs describes the development of philosophy from Tonnies to Karl Mannheim through Max Weber. Tonnies, at the turn of the century describes the split between culture and civilization ascribing to civilization technical development and to culture the development of the humanities. This is a contradiction according to Lukacs who in consonance with Marxist anthropology considers all activities part of culture. Tonnies turns his criticism against modern urban society and develops the ideology to support reforms, improvements suggested by the workers movement. Max Weber defines the development of capitalism as induced by protestant ethic. His descriptions of sociological phenomena are supplemented with formal analogies instead of the explanation of causes. Weber's theory of value-freedom and his thesis that there can be no rational choice in society lead to relativism. His thesis of 'disenchantment' of life through the process of modernization promotes the perception of life without alternatives, a retreat from the capitalist present into the past. This view of a fragmented life could be exploited by Fascists with their false myth of unity. Lukacs establishes that Max Weber's and Karl Mannheim's work lacked democratic potential, gave the illusion of the intelligentsia to being above the social contradictions of their society and thereby rejected the responsibility for Fascism.30 Lukacs in his political, philosophical and aesthetic work analysed the problem of Fascism and drew a number of conclusions, which are valid also today. He established that Fascism is promoted under capitalism in the face of the rising tide of the working class movement, which is also evident from the fact that the first attacks after their coming to power go against the freedom and the earlier achievements of the labour movement. Lukacs emphasizes the direct connection of Fascism with finance-capital and its expansionist, imperialist, military character. Capitalism promotes the view of the position of the intelligentsia being above class. The responsibility of the intelligentsia, artists and philosophers is to expose the so-called "democratic", "socialist" nature of Fascism, point to the Fascist method of falsification of history, philosophy and literature. Lukacs calls for a kind of art and literature that counters the Fascist myth of national unity and shows up future perspectives. The process of transcending identities which Lukacs groped for in different forms in his pre-marxist works could be achieved through the dialectical tradition introduced by Hegel into German philosophy and the subsequent analysis of class contradictions made by Marx. NOTES 1. Otto Bauer, Fascism, in: Austro-Marxism, transl. and ed. By Tom Bottomore 6c Patrick Goode, Oxford pp. 167-168.