Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

Scientism in the Writing of History 151
to affirm that "the materialistic conception of history has. triumphed
completely in our country and has the unanimous adherence
of historians both of the younger and of the older·generation."
7 I shall not enter into the question how unanimity has been
achieved in a field that, in my opinion, ought to be dedicated to
discussion. But what, in fact, we saw before us in ROIlle was an
array of well-drilled historians all speaking of "we Soviet historians,"
"the school to which I belong, of historical materialism," and
going on to treat us to an extraordinary display of "certainty."
"The materialistic tradition has completely realized its possibilities
in Marxism," Sidorov told us, "and it enabled Lenin to offer
new explanations of all great events in Russian history and in
modern world history." No lessI And this new history is "scientific."
"By adopting the materialistic conception of history," so
Madame Pankratova tells us, "and only thus, can the laws of historical
development be rightly understood and can we learn to
apply them towards the solution of contemporary problems." Similarly
Nikonov: "History has become .a systematized science"; and
he goes on to tell us how, by the light of "modern, progressive
historical science," 8 Soviet historiography has succeeded in unravelling
the mystery, by which bourgeois, or reactionary, historians
still allow themselves to be baffled, of the causation of wars.
Nikonov then proceeds to explain to us the origins of World
War II. The critical reader will soon be struck by the incredible
bias of the account here presented, and he will notice that the real
intention of the essay is to excuse the Russian rulers' action in concluding
the pact with Hitler in August, 1939, and to lay the guilt
for the outbreak of the war on the shoulders of the "reactionary"
politicians of the West. The pretentious introduction and the
talk about science and the laws of history are the merest makebelieve.
I have no doubt, however, but that the writer himself took
this verbiage quite seriously. It helped him to convince himself of
the impeccable accuracy of his garbled presentation of the episode.
The magic word Hscience" made him feel virtuous; it confirmed
him in his "certainty."
This is why scientism is practised so frequently, and this is why
it is so dangerous.