THE AXIOLOGY AND METHODOLOGY OF CRITICAL ORGANIC MARXISM.

摘要

Contrary to the dominant doctrine in the social sciences today, no social science is objective or "value free." Science is a product of society. Currently, scientific values are a-critical towards its maker. This implies a positive, and thus conservative, evaluation of the status quo.; Marxian social science is both scientific and critical. Marxian social science turns its attention on its maker, society, not only for the purpose of understanding, but to criticize and improve its maker. Because it does not shrink from criticism, it is controversial, misrepresented, and misunderstood.; I have written this Dissertation to clarify the assumptions and principles of Marxian social science. The a-critical positivistic paradigm dominates both Soviet-Marxian and bourgeois social science. In the Dissertation I show how orthodox Marxism fell under the control of that paradigm. Since mid-twentieth century, many European Marxists have been struggling to break out of their positivistic constraints. I critically analyze this Western Marxist movement.; Only since the nineteen-sixties have scholars in the United States begun to take Marxism seriously. Prior to this they wrote as bourgeois propagandists bent on misrepresenting Marx. The American wing of the Western Marxist movement has produced organic Marxism. But this too has vestiges of positivism in it.; My Dissertation removes all traces of positivism from Marxism and creates "critical organic Marxism." Marx wrote that "man must be the supreme being for man." From this I derive the two value axioms which guided Marx's thought throughout his career. These axioms are the locus of gravity in Marx's value-rich social science. The two axioms are: first, people are more important than things; and, second, people are more important than ideas. My arguments are buttressed with extensive textual analyses.; With these elements of Marx's social scientific method clarified, scholars in the future will be able to apply his principles uniformly. This public availability of Marx's method is the primary reason why it is a science.