Naturwissenschaft und Sozialismus: Tendenzen der Naturwissenschafts-Rezeption in der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung des 19. Jahrhunderts

Abstract

This paper deals with the relationships between the German Labour Movement of the late nineteenth century and the contemporary natural sciences. The view of the natural sciences and of their role in society, developed by the Labour Movement, is sketched: they are considered to be an important driving force of social progress, in their technical/economic aspects, as well as in their ideological/political aspects. The relationship between natural sciences and socialist theory of the time is analyzed — particularly the attempts made to model socialist theory after the example of the sciences, in order to confer on it a comparable objectivity. In the third section, the similarities and differences between the contemporary bourgeois understanding of science and the view of science developed by the Labour Movement are discussed. The paradox that a radical movement like the Labour Movement is prepared to acknowledge the authority of the natural sciences, produced and applied by their political opponents, can be partially explained by noting that the sciences are not just a weapon in, but also the object of, its political struggles.