Had an argument where someone tried to tell me historical materialism is “necessarily true” and therefore not scientific or useful. Only response I can think of is that dialectical materialism is a philosophical framework, and isn’t subject to the same rules of falsification as a hypothesis. It feels somehow unsatisfying.
Have any of you encountered this argument before? What do you say to it?
Its worth noting that there are debates within Marxism stressing science, empiricism, and materialism over its philosopical hegelian idealist roots.
There are certainly lots of assertions in Marxism that are testable and scientific. Dialectics? Probably not. Historical materialism ( ie a lens of viewing history through changes in modes of production and technology affecting social structures ), definitely.
Bonus cockshott video: mechanical vs dialectical materialism.