ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 argues that all aspects of science, from the simple idea of empirical observation through to the logical forms that attach themselves to scientific propositions, are the product of the dialectic of humanity and nature. In a nutshell, the matrix of all science is materialist. Science is not about the working out of “method” or “reason” as though the basic character of these things was prior to the Herculean labours of science itself. The development of all science, including the sociological sciences and especially the notion of science in Marx and Engels, is an immanent process that reflects the concrete engagement of humankind as it interacts with the natural world or struggles to achieve “the good life”. As will be shown, although Marx’s and Engels’ notion of historical materialism stresses that the matrix of science, as with all cultural forms, is materialist through and through, it fell to the American philosopher John Dewey to specify the actual anthropological mechanisms through which humanity’s interaction with the natural world gives rise to science.
