{"id":28765,"date":"2021-04-12T23:28:41","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T15:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?page_id=28765"},"modified":"2021-04-12T23:28:45","modified_gmt":"2021-04-12T15:28:45","slug":"science-and-style-february-23-1940","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/science-and-style-february-23-1940\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cScience and Style\u201d (February 23, 1940)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"tdi_1\" class=\"tdc-zone\"><div class=\"tdc_zone tdi_2  wpb_row td-pb-row\"  >\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_2{\r\n                    min-height: 0;\r\n                }\n<\/style><div id=\"tdi_3\" class=\"tdc-row\"><div class=\"vc_row tdi_4  wpb_row td-pb-row\" >\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_4,\r\n                .tdi_4 .tdc-columns{\r\n                    min-height: 0;\r\n                }.tdi_4,\r\n\t\t\t\t.tdi_4 .tdc-columns{\r\n\t\t\t\t    display: block;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_4 .tdc-columns{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_4:before,\r\n\t\t\t\t.tdi_4:after{\r\n\t\t\t\t    display: table;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\n\/* inline tdc_css att - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n.tdi_4{\nmargin-top:50px !important;\n}\n\n.tdi_4 .td_block_wrap{ text-align:left }\n\n<\/style><div class=\"vc_column tdi_6  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span8\">\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_6{\r\n                    vertical-align: baseline;\r\n                }.tdi_6 > .wpb_wrapper,\r\n\t\t\t\t.tdi_6 > .wpb_wrapper > .tdc-elements{\r\n\t\t\t\t    display: block;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_6 > .wpb_wrapper > .tdc-elements{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_6 > .wpb_wrapper > .vc_row_inner{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_6 > .wpb_wrapper{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t    height: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\n<\/style><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\" ><div class=\"wpb_wrapper wpb_text_column td_block_wrap td_block_wrap vc_column_text tdi_7  tagdiv-type td-pb-border-top td_block_template_1\"  data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_7\" >\n<style>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.vc_column_text > .td-element-style{\r\n\t\t\t\t\tz-index: -1;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\n<\/style><div class=\"td-fix-index\"><p><!-- \/wp:post-content --> <!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cScience and Style\u201d <span class=\"note\"><a id=\"f1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/trotsky\/idom\/dm\/26-scistyle.htm#n1\" name=\"f1\">[1]<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"information\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><span class=\"info\">First Published:<\/span> Leon Trotsky, <strong>In Defense of Marxism<\/strong>, New York 1942.<br \/>\n<span class=\"info\">Checked against:<\/span> Leon Trotsky, <strong>In Defence of Marxism<\/strong>, London 1966, pp.192-195.<br \/>\nAll footnotes stem from the latter edition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"date\" style=\"text-align: right;\">February 23, 1940<\/p>\n<p class=\"fst\">Dear Comrades,<\/p>\n<p class=\"fst\">I received Burnham\u2019s <em>Science and Style<\/em>. The abscess is open and this is an important political advantage. The theoretical backwardness of the American \u201cradical\u201d opinion is expressed by the fact that Burnham repeats only \u2013 with some \u201cmodernized\u201d illustrations \u2013 what Struve wrote in Russia more than forty years ago and to a great degree what Diihring tried to teach German Social Democracy three quarters of a century ago. So much from the point of view of \u201cscience.\u201d As far as \u201cstyle\u201d is concerned, I frankly prefer Eastman.<\/p>\n<p>The interest of the document is not at all of a theoretical character: the thousand and first professorial refutation of dialectics has no more worth than all its precedents. But, from the political point of view the importance of the document is indisputable. It shows that the theoretical inspirer of the opposition is not at all nearer to scientific socialism than was Muste, the former associate of Abern. Shachtman mentioned Bogdanov\u2019s philosophy. But it is absolutely impossible to imagine Bogdanov\u2019s signature under such a document, even after his definite rupture with Bolshevism. I believe the Party should ask Comrades Abern and Shachtman, as I do at this moment: What do you think of Burnham\u2019s \u201cscience\u201d and of Burnham\u2019s \u201cstyle\u201d? The question of Finland is important but it is finally only an episode and the change of the international situation, revealing the genuine factors of events, can at once dissipate the divergences on this concrete issue. But can Comrades Abern and Shachtman now, after the appearance of <em>Science and Style<\/em>, continue to carry the slightest responsibility, not for tbe poor document as such, but for Burnham\u2019s entire conception on science, Marxism, politics, and \u201cmorals.\u201d Those Minorityites who prepared themselves for a split should consider that they would be connected not for a week and not for the duration of the Soviet-Finnish War, but for years with a \u201cleader\u201d who has in his entire conception nothing in common with the proletarian revolution.<\/p>\n<p>The abscess is open. Abern and Shachtman can no longer repeat that they wish only to discuss Finland and Cannon a bit. They can no longer play blind man\u2019s buff with Marxism and with the Fourth International. Should the Socialist Workers Party remain in the tradition of Marx, Engels, Franz Mehring, Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg,\u2014a tradition which Burnham proclaims \u201creactionary,\u201d \u2013 or should it accept Burnham\u2019s conceptions which are only a belated reproduction of pre-Marxian petty-bourgeois socialism?<\/p>\n<p>We know too well what such revisionism signified politically in the past. Now in the epoch of the death-agony of the bourgeois society, the political consequences of Burnhamism would be incom parably more immediate and anti-revolutionary. Comrades Abern and Shachtman, you have the floor!<\/p>\n<p class=\"author\">LEON TROTSKY<\/p>\n<p class=\"fst\">Coyoacan, D.F.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"section\" \/>\n<h3>Notes<\/h3>\n<p class=\"endnote\"><a id=\"n1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/trotsky\/idom\/dm\/26-scistyle.htm#f1\" name=\"n1\">1.<\/a> This letter was written by Trotsky in English.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><\/figure>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"vc_column tdi_9  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span4 td-is-sticky\">\n<style scoped>\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n\n\/* custom css - generated by TagDiv Composer *\/\n.tdi_9{\r\n                    vertical-align: baseline;\r\n                }.tdi_9 > .wpb_wrapper,\r\n\t\t\t\t.tdi_9 > .wpb_wrapper > .tdc-elements{\r\n\t\t\t\t    display: block;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_9 > .wpb_wrapper > .tdc-elements{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: 100%;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_9 > .wpb_wrapper > .vc_row_inner{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t}.tdi_9 > .wpb_wrapper{\r\n\t\t\t\t    width: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t    height: auto;\r\n\t\t\t\t}\n<\/style><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\" data-sticky-enabled-on=\"W3RydWUsdHJ1ZSx0cnVlLHRydWVd\" data-sticky-offset=\"20\" data-sticky-is-width-auto=\"W2ZhbHNlLGZhbHNlLGZhbHNlLGZhbHNlXQ==\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper td_block_wrap vc_widget_sidebar tdi_11 \" ><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":25,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-28765","page","type-page","status-publish"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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