Scientific socialism facts for kids
Scientific socialism is a way of thinking about how society works, especially about socialism. It uses a scientific approach to understand how societies change and develop over time.
The term was first used in 1840 by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. He wrote about a "scientific government" that would be based on logic and reason, not just on someone's wishes.
Later, in 1880, Friedrich Engels used the term "scientific socialism" to describe the ideas of his friend, Karl Marx. Marx's ideas looked at how societies change because of economic reasons.
Marx and Engels believed that earlier ideas about socialism were "utopian." This means they were good ideas about how society *should* be, but they didn't explain *why* socialism would happen. Scientific socialism, on the other hand, tries to understand the real reasons behind social changes. It looks at how new problems in society, especially with capitalism, lead to new ways of thinking and organizing.
They saw this scientific approach to society as similar to how Charles Darwin explained evolution in biology. Just as biology became more scientific, they believed the study of society could too.
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Countries Using Scientific Socialism
Some political parties have based their ideas on scientific socialism.
Bangladesh
After 1971, a group called Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal was formed in Bangladesh. Their goal was to create a government based on scientific socialism.
Japan
In Japan, the Japanese Communist Party also follows an ideology based on scientific socialism.
How Scientific Socialism Works
Scientific socialism is a method for understanding and predicting how societies, economies, and material things change. It does this by looking at historical trends using the scientific method. This helps to guess what might happen in the future.
It's different from what is called utopian socialism. Utopian socialism focused on creating perfect plans for society and trying to convince people they were good ideas. Scientific socialism, however, looks at how society actually develops.
Scientific socialists believe that changes in society and politics are mostly shaped by economic conditions. They think that ideas about how people relate to each other and what is considered moral depend on the stage of economic development.
For example, when people learned to farm, they could produce more food than they needed. This change in how they got food led to big changes in how society was organized. Old ways of living, where everyone just got enough to survive, became outdated. New economic conditions needed new ways for people to live together.
See also
- Historical materialism
- Social science
- Socialism with Chinese characteristics
- Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
- Why Socialism?
