Had an argument where someone tried to tell me historical materialism is “necessarily true” and therefore not scientific or useful. Only response I can think of is that dialectical materialism is a philosophical framework, and isn’t subject to the same rules of falsification as a hypothesis. It feels somehow unsatisfying.

Have any of you encountered this argument before? What do you say to it?

  • @redshiftedbrazilian
    10•2 years ago

    I think like this too. It’s weird to say Dialetical materialism is not falsifiable, it’s like saying the scientific method isnt falsifiable. Both are merely frameworks for you to analyse reality and draw conclusions that can be falsified

    EDIT: Im from STEM area, im really new to humanities so if Im badly mistaken here feel free to correct me

    I know Popper said Marxism is not scientific. I dont know much but the friends who presented these criticisms to me said that Marx and Engels works were scientific and they were proven false, but other marxists modified these concepts in a way that they were unfalsifiable, which is bullshit. If a concept is wrong and we modify it to better fit reality why the fuck would it be unscientific? For example, Newton’s physics cannot explain cosmological effects, for that we must use general relativity. Does that mean GR is unscientific because it uses newtons ideas that work but ignores the ones that dont?

    Second thing these friends argued is that Marxism says that socialism is inevitable and it WILL happen, but as far as I know this is simply not true. It wont happen unless we build it, but it is not inevitable and nor it will “naturally” happnlen

      • Muad'DibberA
        8•2 years ago

        Newtonian physics is still falsifiable and valid, just not under some conditions: ie relativistic speeds. It like all scientific theories has some special conditions and exceptions.

      • @redshiftedbrazilian
        5•2 years ago

        Im notsure about Popper either Im just sharing a discussion I had.

        Also, sure, Newton was scientific but what about GR?

    • Muad'DibberA
      9•2 years ago

      Popper has good points with falsifiablity, but you can completely ignore everything he wrote abount marxism. There are a ton of concepts in marxism which are falsifiable, like the labor theory of value, surplus value, class struggle, etc.