Editing Bourgeois pseudoscience (section)

{{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 [[ideology|ideological]] [[perspective (cognitive)|point of view]]<ref>Loren 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}}</ref><ref>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}}</ref> due to their incompatibility with [[Marxism–Leninism]]. At various times pronounced "bourgeois pseudosciences" were: [[Mendelian genetics]],<ref group="notes">See [[Lysenkoism]] and its [[Lysenkoism#In other countries|impact in the other countries]] of the [[Soviet Bloc]]</ref> [[cybernetics]],<ref name=kitov>[https://kitov.rea.ru/negativ "Кампания против кибернетики в СССР"]</ref> [[Quantum mechanics|quantum physics]],<ref>{{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}}</ref> [[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 Denisovich Lysenko|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]]?''”<ref>{{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 }}</ref> 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]].",<ref name=kitov/> "[[Eugenics]] is a bourgeois pseudoscience",<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://filslov.ru/130-evgenika.html|title=Евгеника}}</ref> "[[August Weismann|Weismannism]]-[[Thomas Hunt Morgan|Morganism]] - bourgeois pseudoscience, designed to justify [[capitalism]]".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://filslov.ru/63-vejsmanizm-morganizm.html|title = Вейсманизм - морганизм}}</ref> Today, most scholars agree in characterizing eugenics as rooted in pseudoscience,<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> albeit without the "bourgeois" qualifier.

[[Psychology]] was declared a "bourgeois pseudoscience" in [[People's Republic of China]] during the [[Cultural Revolution]] (1966–1976).<ref>{{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 }}</ref> Furthermore, sociology was banned there in 1952,<ref>{{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 }}</ref> and it remained banned for  until the late 1970s.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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 }}</ref>