Page - 54 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

54 chapter 2 ofdeducing fromdescriptive studies,which, in turn,would serveas thebasis foran inductivelyaccomplishedsynthesis.Thegreatestdirect influenceupon Bauer’sconceptofscience,however,wasJ.S.Mill,especiallyhisdistinctviewon thecorrelationbetweentheoryandempiricalevidence,deductionandinduc- tion. The scientific theoryofErnstMachwasofno lesser importance.Under the influenceofpositivism,OttoBaueragreedthatknowledgeonlyborephe- nomenal characteristics. Experience,whichonemust read independently of anyclassandsocialdeterminants, is itsonlysource: ‘Scienceisnothingbutthe collecting, organising, andprocessingof experience’ (our translation).20 Like ErnstMach, Bauer assumed that scientific results represent a set of approx- imately adequate facts, and that the researcher’s subjective goal determines theirdegreeofadequacy.BecausehealsorecognisedMach’sprincipleof ‘eco- nomyofthought’,Bauertreatedtheoryasaquicker,economicwayofrecording empiricaldata.Sharingthepositionof thepositivistsandKantians,headvoc- atedontological reductionism,and,accordingly,demandedastrictseparation ofscienceandphilosophy. LetusnoteatthispointthatBaueralsoappliedtheprincipleofeliminating ontological and value judgements from sciencewithin the field ofMarxism. Consequently,headoptedasolutionthataimedtoextract ‘pure’and ‘applied’ science fromMarx’s theory verymuch in linewith Bernstein’s approach. In otherwords, he viewed socialismas a fact, value, goal, and ideal. Of course, BauerdidnotagreewiththeMachianempirio-criticalmethodinonerespect. Hesharplyprotestedagainstitsinherenttendencytodenyscienceitsautotelic valueandreduceittoameanstoanend.Instead,hedefendedtheautonomyof scienceanditsrighttoseektruth.Thispositionmanifesteditselfinhisnegation ofLenin’spostulateforapartification(partiinost)ofscience.21 Crucially, Bauer was interested in themode of being, adopted premises, and the role of science primarily with respect to the scientific status of the humanities, amongwhichhe alsoplacedMarxism.His argumentswerepart ofadebatethatwastakingplaceinGermanphilosophyandsociology.Thekey questionwaswhether themethodologicalpremisesofahomogeneousmodel ofsciencebuiltonnaturalist foundationswerelegitimate. IntheargumentbetweenthepositivistsandtheBadenschoolofneo-Kanti- ans,Bauersidedwiththeformer,thoughnotresolutelyso.22Hewasinspiredby 20 ‘AlleWissenschaft istnichts anderes, kannnichts anderes seinals Sammlung,Ordnung, BearbeitungvonErfahrungen’–Bauer1980i,p.49. 21 SeeHaug1985,pp.69–70. 22 FormoreonBauer’scontradictoryrelationshipwithpositivismandempirio-criticism,see Goller2008,p.70.