Bibliography¶
Core Argument¶
This chapter is a bibliography, a list of sources cited or consulted in the work it concludes. Its core argument is implicit in its selection: it presents the intellectual scaffolding for a Marxist-materialist account of science, nature, and history. The bibliography is not a neutral list but a curated canon, drawing together classical Marxist theorists, dialectical materialists, and a broad sweep of scientific and philosophical works that provide the evidentiary and theoretical basis for the book’s arguments.
The list is dominated by the foundational texts of Marxism. Works by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Plekhanov, Bukharin, and Lukács anchor the theoretical framework. Engels’ Dialectics of Nature and Anti-Dühring appear alongside Marx’s Capital and Grundrisse, establishing the dialectical materialist method as the lens through which science and history are to be understood. Trotsky is heavily represented with political and philosophical writings, including In Defence of Marxism and Literature and Revolution, signalling a polemical orientation against Stalinist distortions of Marxism and in favour of a revolutionary, internationalist tradition.
The bibliography draws heavily on the history and philosophy of science. Works by J.D. Bernal (Science in History), Benjamin Farrington (Greek Science), and V. Gordon Childe (Man Makes Himself) provide a materialist history of scientific and technological development. The inclusion of Hegel, Feuerbach, Spinoza, and Aristotle shows the philosophical lineage from which dialectical materialism emerged, while Kant and Berkeley are present as idealist positions to be refuted. The chapter implicitly argues against positivism and mechanistic materialism by including works like Christopher Caudwell’s The Crisis in Physics and David Bohm’s Causality and Chance in Modern Physics, which critique the philosophical assumptions of bourgeois science.
Contemporary scientific debates are addressed through a wide range of sources. Evolution is covered by Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, and J.B.S. Haldane, indicating engagement with both the orthodox synthesis and its critics. Cosmology and physics include Stephen Hawking, Paul Davies, and John Barrow, but also Eric Lerner’s The Big Bang Never Happened, suggesting a willingness to challenge dominant paradigms. The inclusion of Ilya Prigogine and James Gleick on chaos and complexity theory signals an interest in non-linear, dialectical models of change. Psychology and cognitive science are represented by Piaget, Chomsky, Steven Rose, and Margaret Donaldson, indicating a materialist approach to consciousness and development.
Notable polemics are embedded in the selection. Karl Popper’s Unended Quest appears, likely as a target for Cornforth’s The Open Philosophy and The Open Society, which is a Marxist critique of Popper’s anti-historicism. The inclusion of E.O. Wilson’s Sociobiology and the rebuttal Not in Our Genes by Rose, Kamin, and Lewontin signals a polemic against biological determinism. The presence of William Rees-Mogg’s The Great Reckoning suggests a critique of bourgeois futurology and crisis theory. The bibliography thus functions as a weapon in the struggle for a correct, dialectical materialist understanding of nature and society, marshalling evidence from across the sciences to defend and develop Marxism against both bourgeois ideology and revisionism.