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Marxism and the New Physics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Paul Mattick
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Abstract

Although the ideological struggle between the East and the West has been carried into the natural sciences, the author contends that there is no connection between Marxism and physical theory, whether deterministic or indeterministic. Marxism, which concerns itself with social theory, deals with physical theory only in so far as it is used for specific class purposes instead of social needs. Marxism does not derive its social theory, as has been asserted, either from, or by analogy with, physical processes, nor does it read “social laws” of development into nature. The attempt to do so by way of “dialectical materialism” must be regarded as a Marxist aberration. The author deals with the history of this aberration and with the reasons for its persistency in Marxism-Leninism.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , October 1962, pp. 350 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1962

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References

1 Max Born, The Concept of Reality in Physics. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Chicago, 1958. Vol. XIV, No. 8, p. 320.

2 Ibid., p. 319.

3 F. Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach, New York, 1945, p. 22.

4 M. Born, The Concept of Reality in Physics, p. 320.

5 B. Croce, Lebendiges und Totes in Hegels Philosophie, Heidelberg, 1909.

6 F. Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach, p. 31.

7 Alphonse Aulard, Histoire Politique de la Révolution Francaise; Origines et Développement de la Démocratie et de la République (1789–1804), Paris, 1901, p. 734.

8 E. Mach, The Science of Mechanics, London, 1942, p. 27.

9 Materialism and Empiriocriticism, New York, 1927, p. 107.

10 Ibid., p. 107.

11 Ibid., p. 63.

12 Ibid., p. 109.

13 Marx's Theses on Feuerbach in F. Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach, p. 73.

14 A more extensive criticism of Lenin's scientific and philosophical ideas is to be found in Marxism and Philosophy, by Karl Korsch, Leipzig, 1930, and Lenin as Philosopher, by Anton Pannekoek, New York, 1948.

15 Critique of Political Economy, Chicago, 1904, p. 11.

16 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, Moscow, p. 169.

17 Capital, Chicago, Vol. III, p. 952.

18 V. G. Childe, Society and Knowledge, New York, 1956, p. 97.

19 M. Born, The Concept of Reality in Physics, p. 319.

20 L. d. Broglie, Physics and Microphysics, New York, 1960, p. 68.

21 W. Heisenberg, From Plato to Max Planck. Atlantic Monthly, Boston, November, 1959, p. 113.

22 W. Heisenberg, From Plato to Planck, p. 112.

23 M. Planck, A Survey of Physical Theory, New York, 1960, p. 64.

24 E. Borel, Space & Time, New York, 1960, p. 182.

25 See: M. Born, Voraussagbarkeit in der klassischen Mechanik. Physikalische Blatter, 1959, Heft 8.

26 W. Heisenberg, From Plato to Max Planck, p. 112.

27 The Concept of Reality in Physics, p. 320.

28 A. G. Meyer, Marxism: The Unity of Theory and Practice, Cambridge, 1954, p. 10.