Re: [Marxism] RE: Science and Society [was: Challenge...]

[brownh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Haines Brown)]

> Science starts with observations and data, attempts a generalized
> hypothesis, then tests that hypothesis with experiments that
> addresses the problem of variables or its offers mathematical or
> other proofs.  There is a social and cultural context to science,
> but the scientific method is supposed to--and largely does--cut
> across those distinctions.

Sorry, but this is simply incorrect. Natural sciences employ a number
of methods, not just the hypothetico-deductive method you
describe. For example, the abductive method argues back from a known
outcome to reveal truths about an initial state, which is the opposite
of the deductive method.

> And--while I'm not sure on this--if Engels was writing in German, he
> may have well been misunderstood.

Although Engels wrote at the time of the dominance of positivism, I
see no reason to believe he really adopted it. I've no time or
expertise to say for sure, but the German word Wissenschaft only means
an organized body of knowledge, and does not necessarily imply the
covering-law type of explanation you illustrated in your first
paragraph.

Much of the debate over whether Marxism is a science depends on
whether a person happens to assume that "science" necessarily uses the
hypothetico-deductive method. There is a ideological reason why this
is taught in school as the only method of science, but everyone
actually engaged in the sciences knows better. Furthermore, Marxism
has to do with emergent processes (such as history), and for such
phenomena, the deductive method is obviously inappropriate.

However, there may be some ambiguity in Engels. For example, he speaks
of diamat as if it were generalizing laws, and this makes him sound
like a positivist. On the other hand, he says that everything is in
motion (is a process), and that contradictions positivist
assumptions. I suspect he was influenced by the positivist cultural
environment without fully realizing its reactionary implications.

-- 
 
       Haines Brown
         KB1GRM
         ET1(SS) U.S.S. Irex SS-482       

________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism