Ideology, Science, and Social Relations: A Reinterpretation of Marx’s Epistemology

M y work and thinking as a feminist sociologist have been profoundly influenced by the understanding I developed of the materialist method, as it was first formulated in Marx and Engels’s The German Ideology . The interpretation of Marx’s method explored in this chapter originated in my interest in finding a method of inquiry other than those in which I had been trained, which replicated the objectifying androcentrism of the ruling relations. 1 In this chapter I present a reading of this aspect of Marx’s epistemology that differs substantially from how it is generally viewed. Though my reading has been close and carefully repeated and renewed over the years, it is still one that examines Marx’s thinking dialogically, being focused on what he can teach me of his method of inquiry, rather than on an explication of his theory.