Marxism and Scientific Socialism by Thomas Paul;

Author:Thomas, Paul;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Sciences
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2008-04-23T16:00:00+00:00

Farrington’s testimony, as Werskey indicates, is of particular interest because it comes from a communist who worked closely with and greatly respected Bernal, Haldane and Hyman Levy.

Moreover, as a noted historian of Ancient science and sympathetic biographer of Francis Bacon, (Farrington) cannot be charged with the traditional biases of an Arts man who ignored or denigrated scientific knowledge and its practitioners. What Farrington did find objectionable was the “scientism” of Bernal (Bernal “was under the impression that Marxism is a product of the physical sciences”) and his associates, their over-evaluation and reification of their science as the revolutionary force behind the collapse of capitalism and the rise of socialism.23

Farrington’s observations have much else to commend them. Bernalism operated with a highly reified, and highly capacious concept of science, which at once became a method, an institution, a cumulative tradition of knowledge, a productive force, and a moulder of minds.24 Indeed, it could be argued that not only was science a force of production, according to Bernal: it was the force of production, pushing all other contenders out of the way like a cuckoo in the nest. We can see with the benefit of hindsight what was less evident, more occluded at the time: that Bernalism substituted for human praxis à la Marx science as a kind of portmanteau demiurge.25 Human action, whether political or economic, is eclipsed, unless it coincides or overlaps with the ever-increasing grasp of science. Farrington was quite right: Bernal, who prided himself on his knowledge of orthodox Marxism, nevertheless seems to have thought that dialectical materialism and scientific socialism were valuable in that they confirmed his own understanding of science as the most creative force in human history. But just as dialectical materialism emphasizes science at the expense of human agency, as we shall see, so too did Bernal’s excursions into dialectical materialism occupy an orbit that was rather distant, not just from the orbit of human labour in general, but even from his own scientific work in particular. Bernal was unperturbed: in words that confirm Farrington’s suspicions, he insisted over and over again that

the present economic system and the advance of science cannot for much longer go on together. Either science will be stifled and the system itself go down in war and barbarism, or the system will have to be changed to let science get on with its job.26

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.