The Contradictions of Positivist Marxism

Abstract

The ideal abstraction which transformed the Marxist dialectic into ‘the economic interpretation of history’ was generated within the renaissance of positivist philosophy. With the publication of the third volume of Capital, the floodgate of criticism, which had only been held in check by Engels fighting something of a rearguard action, opened and the now familiar criticisms of inconsistency and contradiction poured forth. Unprepared for such an onslaught, and appearing to defend a naive theory of economic forces, many Marxist theoreticians were forced to concede ground on the most fundamental elements of Marx’s theoretical apparatus; his dialectical method and the theory of value. The repeated re-examinations of the issues which rose to prominence during the years prior to the First World War are simply a reprise of positions established during the original debate. It was inevitable that, given their shared positivist philosophical underpinnings, the positions adopted by the various protagonists would eventually begin to coalesce. It was simply a matter of time, therefore, before the last vestiges of the dialectical method were expunged from Marxism altogether, to be replaced by the method of positivism.