The Socio-political Roots of Boris Hessen: Soviet Marxism and the History of Science

Abstract

One of the most famous papers ever presented at a history of science meeting was `The Socio-Economic Roots of Newton's Principia', given by the Soviet physicist Boris Hessen at the Second International Congress of the History of Science, held in London in 1931. Although many scholars at the congress were impressed by Hessen's thesis that intellectual achievements such as Newton's are best explained by examining the social context out of which they arose, oddly enough no one thought to apply this sort of analysis to Hessen's achievement. An examination of Soviet Russia in 1931, a time of great political and economic stress, shows that both Soviet physics and Hessen personally were under very unusual pressures. Hessen's main concern in previous months had been to protect Einstein's relativity theory from attacks by vulgar Marxist ideologists. Hessen's paper on Newton was carefully crafted to support this defensive effort and simultaneously was aimed at strengthening Hessen's own political situation.

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