马克思的实践唯物主义和达尔文的进化论,分别代表了现代社会科学和自然科学理论的两座高峰,并且由于二者同时在唯物论方面的突出贡献,使得这两种看似关联并不密切的理论产生了思想交集。当代达尔文主义者关于进化论乃至科学的重新解释,使得科学不再代表一种纯然客观的、完全受限于事实的理论;科学如同人类其他的创造性活动一样,时刻受到各类价值规范的影响和制约,甚至有时也会反过来影响既定的价值规范。依据这番关于科学的解释,立足于人类社会生活事实的实践唯物主义,不应被简单地归结为关于事实的科学,而应被视为蕴含着某种实践哲学的科学理论。
Marx's Practical Materialism and Darwin's Theory of Evolution respectively are on behalf of the supreme contribu- tion to modern social science and natural science. Due to their similar contribution to materialism, there is kind of intersec- tion of thoughts between those two theories which seems to be unconcerned. Contemporary Darwinists have given a series of new explanations of Theory of Evolution and even science itself, so that science is no more the purely objective theory which is totally enslaved to facts, so that science as other creative activities of human being is influenced and restricted by many kinds of norms and values, antt even at some times it has an impact on the established norms. At.cording to those updated explanations of science, Practical Materialism, which bases on facts of human society, could be rather regarded as certain scientific theory in which practical philosophy is contained, than regarded as such science only restricted by facts.