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Science and worldviews in the marxist tradition

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Science, Worldviews and Education

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Abstract

This paper is about the relationship between Marxism, Science and Worldviews. In Section I, the paper gives a descriptive definition of the scientific viewpoint based on a materialist ontology, a realist epistemology, and the recognition that science is a social activity. The paper shows in Section II that there are currents in contemporary Marxism which relate favourably to science. In Section III, the paper examines Marx's encounter with Natural Philosophy and Materialism by analysing the influence of Epicurus on Marx. Section IV examines Marx's positive attitude towards natural science. Section V discusses the relation between science and ideology and proposes a scheme to defend the thesis that science establishes a conceptual autonomy from the forms of social consciousness existing in the social formation. Finally Section VI examines the historical infusion of Marxism into the Western scientific community in the 1930s, and the positions adopted by Marxists when they have considered science education.

One basis for science and another for life is apriori a lie

Karl Marx, 1844

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics & Epistemology, University of Athens, 15784, Athens, Greece

    C. D. Skordoulis

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  1. C. D. Skordoulis
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Correspondence to C. D. Skordoulis .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, University of New South Wales, Morven Brown Building G1, 2052, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Michael R. Matthews

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Skordoulis, C.D. (2007). Science and worldviews in the marxist tradition. In: Matthews, M.R. (eds) Science, Worldviews and Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2779-5_13

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