Marx’s followers suppressed his conditional vision of unified science

Evidence

Marx himself had hoped for one science: “Natural science will one day incorporate the science of man, just as the science of man will incorporate natural science; there will be a single science” (Early Writings, p. 164). His followers had forgotten the second clause of his sentence and also ignored the fact that Marx had said “one day” there will be a unified science of nature and man. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 1662

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies precisely what Marx’s ‘single science’ prediction said — that unification was a future goal, not an established fact.
• XREF: Connects to the Frankfurt School’s critique of positivism and of orthodox Marxism’s scientism, elaborated across the book’s chapters. — connects to: Absolutized Theory misreads Marx by omitting his movement between abstraction levels; Marx refused to reduce history to a single ultimate economic cause — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1633; Marx disavowed any universal historical theory of capitalist development (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Absolutized Theory misreads Marx by omitting his movement between abstraction levels #expands (0.85)
• Marx reduced global capitalism to a knowable geometric system. #contradicts (0.85) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 78
• Marx saw historical development as contradictory rather than unilinear #corroborates (0.85)
• Marx refused to reduce history to a single ultimate economic cause #corroborates (0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1633
• Marx disavowed any universal historical theory of capitalist development #corroborates (0.80)
• Marx denied that his account of capitalism’s genesis applied universally #corroborates (0.80)
• Marx distinguished scientific determination of material production from ideological forms of consciousness #expands (0.80)
• The base-superstructure formula weakened Marxism by reducing ideas to mere reflections #complicates (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1693