[Marxism] Preface to the first edition of Capital

[Louis Proyect]

Shiraz Kassam wrote:
> I have been re-reading Marx's preface to capital.. a sentence at a time .. and would be obliged if others can throw light on my many questions .. i will begin with the first: 
> 
> In the 3rd paragraph of the Preface Marx writes:
> 
> " Beginnings are always difficult in all sciences." 
> 
> Why are beginnings in all sciences always difficult?

I imagine because they always involve a shift in a paradigm. For 
example, Einsteinian physics involves such a shift as does the "big 
bang" explanation for the origins of the universe. Thomas Kuhn has the 
ultimate take on this process:

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (SSR) (1962) Kuhn argued that 
science does not progress via a linear accumulation of new knowledge, 
but undergoes periodic revolutions, also called "paradigm shifts" 
(although he did not coin the phrase)[2], in which the nature of 
scientific inquiry within a particular field is abruptly transformed. In 
general, science is broken up into three distinct stages. Prescience, 
which lacks a central paradigm, comes first. This is followed by "normal 
science", when scientists attempt to enlarge the central paradigm by 
"puzzle-solving". Thus, the failure of a result to conform to the 
paradigm is seen not as refuting the paradigm, but as the mistake of the 
researcher, contra Popper's refutability criterion. As anomalous results 
build up, science reaches a crisis, at which point a new paradigm, which 
subsumes the old results along with the anomalous results into one 
framework, is accepted.

full: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kuhn

Although you cannot see exactly the same process at work in the social 
sciences as you do in the physical sciences, there is no question that 
Marx's post-Hegelian approach to the commodity form requires the same 
kind of paradigm shift, in this case away from Ricardo/Smith.