Page - 58 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

58 chapter 2 standingof thesocial sciences– i.e.Marxism–Bauerascribedthesignificant purposeof combining twoopposed concepts to the causality principle: first, thescientistic-positivistbeliefintheimpartialityofscience,andsecond,Marx’s demandtoestablishscienceasthebasis foraction. OtherquestionsraisedinBauer’searlierwritingsconcernedphilosophy,dia- lectics, andepistemological theory inMarxism, thoughtheymerely formeda collectionofpassingremarks.Bauer’s interpretationof thephilosophicalcon- tent ofMarx’s theorywasdefinedbyhis viewof scienceand the fact thathe applied it toMarxism. The author ofTheQuestionofNationalities andSocial Democracyunderstood that social theorywasmore closely related to philo- sophythantonaturalscienceandcouldnoteschewbasicphilosophicalques- tions concerning the essence of the world and themeaning of the succes- sionof phenomena. Even so, heplaced thesequestions beyond the realmof science, given that they reached, or even exceeded, the limits of experience. Usingthephilosophicalandmethodologicalpremisesofpositivismandscient- ism,he interpretedMarx’shistoricalmaterialismasanempirical science that approachedtheprecisionofprognosesandanalyses inthenaturalsciences. Baueremphasisedtheobjectivistandnaturalistqualitiesofhistoricalmater- ialism.At thesametime,hedenied thatonecouldbaseontologicalandeval- uativeassumptionsonhistoricalmaterialism,whichhereducedtoasociology modelledonthenaturalsciences.Hecommented: Marx’s social doctrine is an exact science. It is thus not a critique of knowledgenoraphilosophy…Inprinciple,Marxiansocial theoryneeds guidance from philosophy just as little as, for instance, mechanics or astronomy.29 ourtranslation Bauer’sviewofsociologyasanexact sciencethatdrawsonresearchpractices analogoustothenaturalsciencesemerged,firstly,fromhispolemicalexamina- tionofWilhelmDilthey’sthesis,accordingtowhichitwasimpossibletoestab- lisha scientifically groundedsociology.Diltheyquestioned theadequacyof a sociologicalapproachanditsability tosolve thequestions itposed.Secondly, Bauer criticisedGeorg Simmel, whonegated sociology’s basis in naturalism. At the same time, Bauer’s reductionist understanding of Marxist sociology 29 ‘MarxGesellschaftslehre isteineexakteWissenschaft. Sie istalsokeineErkenntniskritik, keinePhilosophie. (…)AnsichbedarfdieMarxscheGesellschaftstheoriederBelehrung durchdiePhilosophieebensowenigwieetwadieMechanikoderdieAstronomie’–Bauer 1979f,p. 188.