ABSTRACT
The essence of Marxian wisdom consists, not in asserting that the "social, political and spiritual life-process in general" is determined by changes in the conditions of production, but in knowing how to distinguish those parts of it which are so determined, from those which are not. It consists in knowing the difference between science and ideology. It never seems to have occurred to Marx's mind that history is a generalization which includes the development of the natural sciences. It differs from ideological socialism in being "conscious" of the economic movement of which it is a "necessary reflection". This statement, if it is taken seriously, does not merely mean that Marx reflected this conflict at those times when he was specifically talking about it. It means that the whole general Marxian science of history is a reflection of this particular historic fact. However, Russian Marxism is merely Marxism in its purest Hegelian-metaphysical form.
