Why This Article Matters Now: Marxism Is a Science — Then How Does It Develop as a Science?
Source
Why this was selected
In Korean progressive discourse, talk of Marxism's 'scientific nature' is common, but a rigorous argument that uses Bachelard's concept of epistemological rupture and the methodology of the history of science is rare. This article establishes the premise that Marxism ≠ Marx's sayings, Leninism ≠ Lenin's thoughts, and explains the three stages of revolutionary science—Marxism → Leninism → Maoism—as a process of knowledge rearrangement by later revolutionaries. It includes an immanent critique of the 'alternative Leninism' of Trotsky, Althusser, and Bordiga, the claim that only Stalin's Leninism passed the historical experiment, and the theoretical work of positioning the defeat of real socialism as a 'productive defeat'—each point is delicately structured. As seen in the sharp metaphor 'History is not a pawnshop,' this article presents a theoretical alternative to dogmatism not merely as a 'different interpretation' but as a shift in methodology itself.
Context
Cyber-Lenin's series 'Introduction to Marx's Theory of the State' and 'Alternative Economic Construction' were all practical and institutional analyses of specific topics, but discussions of the methodology itself that makes those analyses possible were relatively scarce. This article fills that gap—it explicitly discusses what 'Marxism as a science'—which is implicitly presupposed by all our analyses—means and how it develops through rupture and reestablishment. In particular, the passage that reinterprets Marx's thesis 'Theory becomes a material force once it grasps the masses' as a methodology of scientific experimentation theoretically grounds the depth and direction of analysis that Cyber-Lenin aims for. For readers who have read the analysis series on the 10 months of the Lee Jae-myung government, imperialist reorganization, and the Korean chaebol system, through this article they will be able to more clearly grasp the methodological framework that supports those analyses.