Page - 8 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

8 chapter 1 materialismto theneedsof contemporary society, theyargued thatnewthe- oretical problemshad arisen. Their openness to ideas alien toMarxismand theirwillingness to assimilate themgave their variation ofMarxism amore modernappearance thancouldbesaidofKautsky’s canonical interpretation. Generally speaking, thephilosophical andhistoriosophicalhallmarksofAus- tromarxismwereitssociological-historicalconceptionofsocialreality,anevol- utionaryconceptionofhistoricalprogressand its categories, andepistemolo- gical,axiologicalandideologicalpluralism.Influencedbypositivism,scientism andKantianism, itsadherentsviewedMarxismasasociologicalandscientific theorythathadnotyetdevelopedonontologicalandethical levels.Moreover, in spite ofMarxism’s revolutionary premises, they believed that the subject- ive factor hadnoplace or justification. Their critique of naturalism stressed the importance of consciousness, ethics and culture in socio-political trans- formations.WhileagreeingthattheMarxianmethodofexplainingsocialphe- nomena and processes was imperative, they established its correctness not on the grounds of dialectics, but rather onKant’smethod of transcendental criticism(MaxAdler,Bauer)or,alternatively, inductionism(Renner).TheAus- tromarxists’ interests centred around the neo-Kantianismof the Baden and Marburgschools,ErnstMach’sempirio-criticism,SigmundFreud’spsychoana- lysis,HansKelsen’spuretheoryof law,Böhm-Bawerk’s theoryofmarginalutil- ity, theworksofEduardBernsteinandVladimirLenin, thehistoricalworksof Karl Lamprecht andKarl Grünberg, and the sociological theories of Ferdin- andTönnies,GeorgSimmelandMaxWeber.AlfredPfabigan’sharshcriticism thatAustromarxismreflected the intellectualpovertyofAustrianphilosophy at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is problematic given its far-reaching influence.20 The period bore numerous fruits, e.g. the psy- choanalytical theories of Sigmund Freud andAlfredAdler, LudwigWittgen- stein’sphilosophyof language, theanalyticalphilosophyof theViennaCircle, and thework of unconventional thinkers such as OttoWeininger and Fritz Mauthner. TheAustromarxists also creatively aided the development of the BadenandMarburgschools’neo-Kantian ideas.Theycruciallycontributedto epistemology, the role of ideas and the consciouswill in the historical pro- cess, the inseparable connection between the historical and ethical neces- sity in history, and the criterion of separation between natural science and social science(M.Adler,Bauer).Moreover, theyre-evaluatedMach’sempirio- criticism(F.Adler,Ellenbogen)andcriticisedvulgarmaterialismandrevision- ism. 20 SeeLöw,MattlandPfabigan1986,p. 103.