RE: [Marxism] If Marxism is a Science...

["Tony Lawless" <lifesunquietdream@xxxxxxx>]

Mark Lause wrote:

"Hard sciences are said to be predictive in the sense of being able to
replicate outcomes through controlled experiment, the key concept here being
control and the exclusion of variable factors.  Although we can strive for a
certain scientific rigor, no study of society can or will ever be
"scientific" in the sense of being able to experiment, replicate results, or
exclude variables.
[...]
And even the hard sciences talk today about uncertainty, randomness,
butterfly effects, etc.
If Marxism--or any study of society--actually would be predictive, we'd be
living in a strange Doctor Who world...fun in the short run, but a
pointlessly boring place for any human being to live, no?"


I think that there is much truth in what you say, Mark. There are definite
constraints on knowledge and science is regularly about controling and
trying to exclude variable factors.

a. But in 1919, there was an eclipse which allowed scientists to observe the
movement of starlight when it passed very close to the sun. The scientists
said: if Einstein is right, then the sun's gravitational force should bend
this starlight; if Einstein is wrong, the light will not be bent.  The light
was bent.

b. Some of the outermost planets were first predicted to exist before their
existence was confirmed through observation. Uranus and Neptune, if I am not
mistaken.

c. Even the discovery of the Double Helix was based on the prediction that
it must have a shape and that some shapes were more likely than others.

In other words, far from making the world boring, the prediictive quality of
the world is what makes genuine science sometimes the art of genuine
discovery.


Moreover, there is no reason why this cannot be extended to society,
provided the observer has a very active understanding of the dialectic of
the observer and the observed; and that the observer does not try to
suppress the idea that social being determines consciousness, including the
observer's own consciousness; and that ideologies are broadly linked to
classes; and that this affects and can be seen more clearly in the
programmatic orientation of parties or political groups, particularly over
the long haul; and that the ruling ideas of the epoch are the ideas of the
ruling class and so on.


Anyway, advice to all IST members on the list: Rejoin the social democracy!
There is a broad basis of agreement in your political understanding of the
world! This has been accelerated by the restoration of capitalism in Eastern
Europe! Why form different parties when the post-capitalist societies that
you don't think were actually post-capitalist don't actually exist any more
anyway!


Tony

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