Bourgeois pseudoscience

{{Short description|Soviet Communist concept}}

Bourgeois pseudoscience ({{langx|ru|буржуазная лженаука}}) was a term of condemnation in the Soviet Union for certain scientific disciplines that were deemed unacceptable from an ideological point of viewLoren R. Graham (2004) Science in Russia and the Soviet Union. A Short History. Series: Cambridge Studies in the History of Science. Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-28789-0}}.{{page needed|date=September 2021}}Mark Walker (2002) Science and Ideology. A Comparative History. Series: Routledge Studies in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Routledge. {{ISBN|978-0-415-27122-6}}.{{page needed|date=September 2021}} due to their incompatibility with Marxism–Leninism. At various times pronounced "bourgeois pseudosciences" were: Mendelian genetics,See Lysenkoism and its impact in the other countries of the Soviet Bloc cybernetics,[https://kitov.rea.ru/negativ "Кампания против кибернетики в СССР"] quantum physics,{{Cite book |last=Josephson |first=Paul R. |url=https://www.google.co.il/books/edition/Physics_and_Politics_in_Revolutionary_Ru/iO3QEAAAQBAJ?hl=iw&gbpv=1&pg=PA322&printsec=frontcover |title=Physics and Politics in Revolutionary Russia |date=2023-09-01 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-91147-5 |language=en}} theory of relativity,{{Citation needed |date=March 2024}} sociology{{Citation needed |date=March 2024}} and particular directions in comparative linguistics (the now-debunked Japhetic theory of Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr, which was also refuted by Stalin in "Marxism and Problems of Linguistics").

The term was not used by Stalin himself,{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} who rejected the notion that all sciences must have a class nature. Stalin removed all mention of “bourgeois biology” from Trofim Lysenko’s report, The State of Biology in the Soviet Union, and in the margin next to the statement that “any science is based on class” Stalin wrote, “Ha-ha-ha!! And what about mathematics? Or Darwinism?”{{cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Yongsheng |last2=Li |first2=Baoyin |last3=Wang |first3=Qinglian |title=Science and politics |journal=EMBO Reports |date=September 2009 |volume=10 |issue=9 |pages=938–939 |doi=10.1038/embor.2009.198 |pmid=19721459 |pmc=2750069 }} The term or its synonyms was used in the 1951 and 1954 editions of the Short Philosophical Dictionary: "Cybernetic is a reactionary pseudoscience originated in the United States... A form of modern mechanicism.", "Eugenics is a bourgeois pseudoscience",{{Cite web|url=https://filslov.ru/130-evgenika.html|title=Евгеника}} "Weismannism-Morganism - bourgeois pseudoscience, designed to justify capitalism".{{Cite web|url=https://filslov.ru/63-vejsmanizm-morganizm.html|title = Вейсманизм - морганизм}} Today, most scholars agree in characterizing eugenics as rooted in pseudoscience,{{cite news |last=Worrall |first=Simon |date=24 July 2016 |title=The Gene: Science's Most Dangerous Idea |work=National Geographic |url= http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/gene-history-siddhartha-mukherjee-science-eugenics/ |url-status=dead |access-date=12 September 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170912102002/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/07/gene-history-siddhartha-mukherjee-science-eugenics/ |archive-date=12 September 2017}}{{cite web |last=White |first=Susan |date=28 June 2017 |title=LibGuides: The Sociology of Science and Technology: Pseudoscience |url= http://libguides.princeton.edu/c.php?g=84711&p=4441670 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180509180431/https://libguides.princeton.edu/c.php?g=84711&p=4441670 |archive-date=9 May 2018 |access-date=12 September 2017 |publisher=Library of University of Princeton}} albeit without the "bourgeois" qualifier.

Psychology was declared a "bourgeois pseudoscience" in People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976).{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Zhong-Ming |title=Psychology in China: A Review Dedicated to Li Chen |journal=Annual Review of Psychology |date=January 1993 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=87–116 |doi=10.1146/annurev.ps.44.020193.000511 }} Furthermore, sociology was banned there in 1952,{{cite book |last1=Feuchtwang |first1=Stephan |last2=Bruckermann |first2=Charlotte |title=Anthropology Of China, The: China As Ethnographic And Theoretical Critique |date=13 July 2016 |publisher=World Scientific Publishing Company |isbn=978-1-78326-985-3 |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A5VIDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 }} and it remained banned for until the late 1970s.{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=Contexts |title=Sociology in China - Contexts |url=https://contexts.org/articles/sociology-in-china/ |access-date=2024-12-31 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Li |first1=Cheng |title=China's Emerging Middle Class: Beyond Economic Transformation |date=1 October 2010 |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |isbn=978-0-8157-0433-1 |page=62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t06DB0lUAZUC&pg=PA62 }}