Scientific theories are superstructures to be explained by society, not causes of it

Evidence

Is modern atomic theory a “definitive” theory, established once and for all? What scientist would dare make such an assertion? Might it not rather be simply a scientific hypothesis which may be superseded, that is to say, absorbed into a vaster and more comprehensive theory? Why then should reference to this theory be so decisive and have put an end to the question of individualism and of Robinsonades? … If atomic theory is what the Manual makes it out to be, given that the history of society is a series of upheavals and there have been many forms of society whereas atomic theory would appear to be the reflection of an ever-constant natural reality, how then has society not always obeyed this law? … According to the theory of praxis it is evident that it is not atomic theory that explains human history but the other way about: in other words that atomic theory and all scientific hypotheses and opinions are superstructures. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1652

Categorization

• XREF: This inversion — science as superstructure explained by social history — is the epistemological backbone later Islamophobia and postcolonial theory inherit when treating Western ‘scientific’ racial categories as products of social formation.
• DEEPTHINKING: Gramsci’s claim that scientific hypotheses, being supersedable, belong to the superstructural realm radically relocates the natural sciences inside the sociology of knowledge.