[Marxism] What is wrong with positivism?

[Mark Lause]

I would answer this question a little differently.....

Comte's idea grew largely from Fourier's concept of passional attraction or
an innate mutualism that created natural human communities, as opposed to
what the market did.  He wanted to establish a religion of science and a
science of religion...what he called a "Church of Humanity."  The notion
that social development, like science would be predictive and that, like
religion, it would redefine all morality in its image.

As an aside, this really got off the ground in places.  Henry Edgar, the
chief American positivist lived at the Modern Times Community in Brentwood
and there was a large working-class religious movement in NYC, particularly
popular among seamen and seafront workers.  It turns up periodically in
contemporary accounts of movement meetings, etc.

Seen as a variant of "utopian socialism," we should realize Lenin's insight
in his article on "revisionism," that Marxism, as it developed incorporated
utopian ideas and that these resurface within the broader context of
Marxism.