What is the relationship between Marxism and medical science?

Answer 1

It has been posited by many Marxist social scientists that, in defence of dialectics as a method of scientific investigation we should draw an analogy or comparison with the diagnostic approach of medical science. While heavily qualitative or behaviouralist approaches suggest that there are strict rules governing macro level behaviour in society, with an emphasis on deductive rationalisation and the development of testable, repeatable experiments (as we might in the study of physics). Many Marxists reject the viability of this definition of a scientific social enquiry, as the study of politics, economics and other socially constructed phenomenon contain far too many variables to be testable in this manner. Instead, Marxists might describe our investigation into the causes and consequences of social ills/characteristics/tendencies should be more akin to that of the biologist or more specifically medical practitioner who might approach enquiry by first diagnosing a problem that requires attention and attempting to draw up some basic characteristics about the problem from looking at several cases. Events in human history (revolutions for instance) are rarely similar, so it is the of the social scientist to deconstruct the narrative of events and look for common factors or tendencies. Like a doctor does not treat any two patients the same, even when they have similar symptoms, the researcher does not use a simplistic mass categorisation of contingencies as a means of developing general rules about a particular phenomenon (such as... a revolution).