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The Crisis of Cosmology

Marxist Theory · 2026-05-13

Core Argument

The central thesis is that modern cosmology is in a state of profound crisis, not merely because of unresolved empirical puzzles, but because its fundamental philosophical method is idealist and undialectical. The article argues that the dominant paradigms — quantum mechanics (particularly the Copenhagen interpretation), the Standard Model of Particle Physics, general relativity, and the Standard Model of Big Bang Cosmology — are each internally contradictory and mutually incompatible. These contradictions cannot be resolved by technical refinements or by positing ever more exotic entities (dark matter, dark energy, inflatons, WIMPs, extra dimensions, multiverses). Rather, the crisis can only be overcome by a conscious return to dialectical materialism: the understanding that matter in motion is primary, that space and time are relational properties of matter, that all scientific laws are approximate tendencies emerging from material interactions, and that the universe is infinite, uncreated, and eternal. The article claims that the Marxist philosophical tradition, particularly the work of Engels in Dialectics of Nature and Anti-Dühring, anticipated the core of this critique and provides the methodological foundation for a genuine scientific revolution in cosmology.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis is grounded in the classical Marxist tradition of dialectical materialism, drawing primarily on Engels's Dialectics of Nature and Anti-Dühring, and Lenin's Materialism and Empirio-Criticism. The article deploys several key dialectical concepts:

  • Matter and motion as inseparable: The fundamental principle that "motion is the mode of existence of matter" is used to critique Big Bang cosmology's implication of a "beginning of time" and creation from nothing, which the article identifies as a disguised theological position.
  • Space and time as relational: Following Engels, the article rejects both the Newtonian conception of absolute space-time and the relativistic conception of space-time as a "fabric," arguing instead that space and time are properties of the relations between material things in motion.
  • The dialectics of infinity: The article distinguishes between "bad infinity" (mechanical repetition or chaotic randomness) and "real infinity" (the dialectical unity of the finite and infinite, of novelty and repetition, of order and chaos), using this to critique both steady-state/cyclical models and multiverse theories.
  • Quantity into quality: The emergence of qualitatively new laws at different scales (thermodynamics from particle interactions, chemistry from physics, biology from chemistry) is used to argue that the search for a single "Theory of Everything" is fundamentally misguided.
  • The critique of "force" as a cover for ignorance: Engels's polemic against scientists who invoke "force" to explain what they do not understand is applied directly to contemporary concepts like dark matter, dark energy, and hypothetical particles.
  • The primacy of objective reality: Lenin's defence of materialism against subjective idealism is used to critique the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, which the article argues denies the existence of an objective reality independent of observation.

The article situates itself within the Marxist tradition that has consistently engaged with natural science, from Engels's Dialectics of Nature through to Ted Grant and Alan Woods's Reason in Revolt (1995). It does not claim that Marxism can provide alternative scientific theories, but that dialectical materialism provides the philosophical method necessary to overcome the current impasse.

Conjunctural Relevance

The article was published in November 2014, a moment when several developments made the crisis of cosmology particularly acute:

  • The failure of the Large Hadron Collider to find supersymmetry: After the discovery of the Higgs boson (announced July 2012, confirmed March 2013), the LHC had failed to find any evidence for supersymmetry, which had been the leading candidate for a "Theory of Everything." The article notes that rather than abandoning the theory, physicists developed ever more elaborate versions — a classic case of a paradigm refusing to face falsification.
  • The persistence of the dark matter and dark energy problems: By 2014, the standard cosmological model (ΛCDM) required that 95% of the mass-energy of the universe be composed of entities (dark matter and dark energy) for which there was no direct empirical evidence. The article cites New Scientist (March 2013) on the "dark void at cosmology's heart."
  • The rise of "fairy-tale physics": The article draws on Jim Baggott's Farewell to Reality (2013), which argued that string theory, M-theory, and multiverse theories had become untestable mathematical speculations divorced from empirical science. Lee Smolin's Time Reborn (2013) is also cited as evidence that leading physicists themselves recognise the crisis.
  • The political-economic context: The article implicitly connects the crisis in cosmology to the broader crisis of capitalism, noting that "enormous sums of money" are wasted on "obscurantist and idealistic flights of fancy." The reference to "Keynesianism" for theoretical physicists is a pointed critique of the allocation of scientific resources under capitalism.

The article's relevance extends beyond 2014. The problems it identifies — the incompatibility of quantum mechanics and general relativity, the lack of empirical content in string theory, the philosophical idealism of the Copenhagen interpretation — remain unresolved. The James Webb Space Telescope (launched 2021) has since produced observations that challenge the standard cosmological model, including galaxies that appear too mature for the supposed age of the universe, lending further weight to the article's claim that the paradigm is in crisis.

Where the Argument Continues

The article is part of a sustained Marxist engagement with natural science that continues across the IDOM corpus and related materials:

  • Reason in Revolt: Marxist Philosophy and Modern Science (Ted Grant and Alan Woods, 1995) is the foundational text, which the article explicitly references as having anticipated the current crisis. The book provides a comprehensive dialectical materialist analysis of quantum mechanics, relativity, cosmology, and evolutionary biology.
  • Alan Woods's "The Science of Revolution" (a series of lectures and articles) develops the relationship between dialectical materialism and natural science in greater depth.
  • Against the Stream episodes have covered topics including the philosophy of science, the crisis in physics, and the relationship between Marxism and scientific method. Specific episodes on Lee Smolin's Time Reborn and on the James Webb Space Telescope's findings would be natural extensions.
  • IDOM articles on the dialectics of nature regularly engage with developments in physics, biology, and neuroscience, applying the same methodological critique to new discoveries.
  • The article leaves open the question of what a genuinely dialectical materialist cosmology would look like in positive terms. It critiques existing theories but does not propose an alternative model. This is consistent with the Marxist position that philosophy cannot substitute for empirical science, but can only provide the method for its advance.

Connections

The article connects to several key texts and thinkers:

  • Frederick Engels, Dialectics of Nature and Anti-Dühring: The primary theoretical sources, providing the concepts of matter and motion, the critique of "force," the dialectics of infinity, and the critique of cosmological creationism.
  • V.I. Lenin, Materialism and Empirio-Criticism: The source for the defence of objective reality against subjective idealism, and the theory of relative and absolute truth.
  • Lee Smolin, Time Reborn (2013): A key contemporary interlocutor. The article engages seriously with Smolin's critique of the Newtonian paradigm and his argument for the reality of time, while criticising his own positive theory of "cosmological natural selection" as idealist.
  • Jim Baggott, Farewell to Reality (2013): Provides the concept of "fairy-tale physics" and the critique of untestable theories.
  • Georg Hegel, Science of Logic: The source for the dialectical concept of infinity and the critique of the finite.
  • Ted Grant and Alan Woods, Reason in Revolt: The most direct Marxist precursor, which the article presents as having anticipated the current crisis.
  • The broader Marxist tradition on science: J.B.S. Haldane, Stephen Jay Gould, and Richard Lewontin are implicit connections, though not cited directly. The article's approach is consistent with the tradition of Marxist engagement with natural science that insists on the inseparability of philosophy and scientific method.

Key Quotes

  1. "To give a name to phenomena, however, does not explain them. Frederick Engels, with Karl Marx, was one of the founders of scientific socialism and when arguing against those scientists who were satisfied with simply attaching the label 'force' as an explanation to cover any gap in their knowledge, he commented, 'Just because we are not yet clear about the "rather complicated conditions" of these phenomena, we often take refuge here in the word force. We express thereby not our knowledge, but out lack of knowledge of the nature of the law and its mode of action.'"

  2. "The idea that, rather than a leap from pure stasis to dynamism, there was perhaps nothing at all and then something — i.e. the creation of the entire Universe from nothing, including all matter and energy — is equally as absurd and amounts to the same thing. As Engels continues: 'Motion is the mode of existence of matter. Never anywhere has there been matter without motion, nor can there be...Matter without motion is just as inconceivable as motion without matter.'"

  3. "The whole history of science has been one in which the limits of the known Universe have constantly been expanded...Yet all talk of a finite Universe — with a beginning of time and a boundary in space — erects a barrier to what can be known, a mystical wall separating us from that which is apparently beyond the realms of science."

  4. "All talk, therefore, of a 'Theory of Everything' is utopian. All theories are relative truths, approximations of the dynamics of motion within limits. Scientific laws in nature, as with any laws in history, the economy, or society, are not cast-iron laws, but are more accurately described as 'tendencies': generalisations arising from the processes of matter in motion, in which similar conditions produce similar results."

  5. "The laws of nature, however, are not material things and cannot 'evolve'. In trying to overcome the idealistic and static timelessness of the Newtonian paradigm and reintroduce the concept of change into theoretical physics, Smolin has bent the stick too far in the opposite direction and arrived at his own idealistic theory."

  6. "What we can say for certain, therefore, is that the current theories do not represent the final word in science, and that a revolution in thought, outlook and method will be needed in order for our understanding to advance. '...it is precisely dialectics that constitutes the most important form of thinking for present-day natural science, for it alone offers the analogue for, and thereby the method of explaining, the evolutionary processes occurring in nature, inter-connections in general, and transitions from one field of investigation to another.' (Engels – Dialectics of Nature)"