Marxism is a science

Charles Jannuzi jannuzi at edu00.f-edu.fukui-u.ac.jp
Wed Jan 2 20:19:04 PST 2002


James Heartfield <Jim at heartfield.demon.co.uk>:


>I raised this discussion originally in his exchange to make it >clear that
Marx - however successfully or not - was interested in >developing an objective science, a critique of political economy.

As were Durkheim, Weber and Saussure in their respective fields.

JH:


>Marx had no preconceived ideas to fulfil, but drew his conclusions >from
the world around him.

An ideal he didn't achieve but no doubt taught to many 'social scientists' after him, like the ones named above.

JH:


>Marx wasn't interested in 'value' in the sense you use it here (as >in
'value judgement') which is largely influenced by Weberian >sociology. Marx was interested in the concept of value that he found >in political economy

While one wouldn't want to confuse the Weberian prohibition of 'value judgements' in 'scientific inquiry' with economics' 'labour theory of value', juxtaposing my second quote of you with the third one appears to result in a possible contradiction.

Charles Jannuzi



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