Abstract

During the 1970s, the left became aware of two Marxisms: one philosophical, the other scientific. Some philosophical Marxism tends to be moralist, idealist, and voluntarist; scientific Marxism is behaviorist, materialist, and determinist. The philosophers often dislike Engels, who they see as Marx's empiricist translator and positivist vulgarizer, but the scientists find him a congenial spirit, the great collaborator of Marx and co-founder of a scientific paradigm. Gouldner's book is a study of these Marxisms: a bold contribution to the sociology of Marxism. Whichever Marxism one prefers, Gouldner's book is a provocative analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of both.

Gouldner leans toward the philosophers, toward Critical Theory.