From Internalism to Externalism: Unanticipated Consequences of Early Spread of Marxist Views on the History of Science

The Second International Congress on the History of Science and Technology in 1931 was an important event in the history of the development of Marxism.The Soviet delegation showed the Marxist views on the History of Science to the western world.Hessen's report had a profound impact on Bernard, Needham, and Merton, triggering the Science of Science and the Sociology of Science in the United States, and also triggering the transformation of the theoretical paradigm of the History of Science from internalism to externalism. In fact, externalism or economic determinism is not the complete form of the Soviet Marxist views on the History of Science. Externalism is an unexpected form of Marxist social theory accepted by Western academics in the process of international ideological battle before World War II.This paper explains the Sociogenesis of externalism in Historiography of Science through the excavation of the Russian archives.