social science production (was: Dark Sides of 'Solidarity'?)

[Carrol Cox]

> My hypothesis (which, alas, may not be empirically falsifiable) is that
> disciplines closer to the heart of the ruling class tend to produce a
> higher proportion of ideology than other disciplines do.

George Thompson (the British classical scholar and Caldwell / Stalin / Mao 
marxist)  made an interesting observation in one of his books, which while
not quite a theory is worth some thought. He argued that the physical and
biological sciences were only "allowed" to develop when and if their
results became crucial to capital. His particular instance was Darwinian
biology, which (my memory is vague on the exact argument) he said became
respectable only when capital came to need the practical results of the
biological sciences, results which were inseparable from Darwinism.

Carrol