ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 explores the relationship between scientific theory and reality. In its external moment, the essential character of theory, namely, its symbolic abstractionism, is theory merely depicting or representing the “external world”; theory in its external moment notably strives for simple correctness. The external moment entails a comprehensive theory of knowledge including realism, reflectivism, the understanding of science as irreducibly empirical, the assumption of adequate conceptual approximation, a distinction between categories (those that arrange thought but which do not correlate with anything determinate) and concepts (symbols with correlates in the real world), and an acceptance of constructive fallibilism. In its logically internal moment, however, theory is constitutive of the world itself, that is, it serves to modify the natural or social world in accordance with social goals or desires. In its logically internal moment, the world is actually and potentially transformed by theory. The science of Marx and Engels epitomizes these two moments of scientific theory. Put succinctly, their theory is of capitalism and for the proletariat.
