I wanted to see what others thought when reading the introduction. I immediately thought of all the “science” done in the US that said smoking wasn’t bad for you or that climate change wasn’t caused by human activity. I’m sure there are many other examples, but Lenin is specifically talking about social sciences. Does anyone know of any examples of this? I like to try to connect theory to historical or current events because it helps me understand better, but I’m drawing a blank right now. I’ve included the intro that I’m talking about below.
“Throughout the civilised world the teachings of Marx evoke the utmost hostility and hatred of all bourgeois science (both official and liberal), which regards Marxism as a kind of “pernicious sect”. And no other attitude is to be expected, for there can be no “impartial” social science in a society based on class struggle. In one way or another, all official and liberal science defends wage-slavery, whereas Marxism has declared relentless war on that slavery. To expect science to be impartial in a wage-slave society is as foolishly naïve as to expect impartiality from manufacturers on the question of whether workers’ wages ought not to be increased by decreasing the profits of capital.”
This is one of the best short introductions to Marxism-Leninism out there.
IIRC Immanuel Wallerstein wrote about social science disciplines being defined by the liberal imperialist project. Anthropology and Orientalism were dedicated to studying the Global South nations that were targets for imperialism.
Oh, that makes sense. I was trying to figure it out specifically because I figured the phrase meant something different to Lenin than it would to most of us today, but I guess not. Thank you!
