Page - 62 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

62 chapter 2 In the aforementioned text, Bauer employedMarx’smethodological pos- tulatemainly to interpret the philosophy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.38Hewas especially preoccupiedwith the historical origins of sci- entificmaterialismandthereasonswhyithadreplacedphilosophicalidealism duringtheearlyperiodofcapitalism.Heconsideredthefollowingasthemost importantfactorsinthisdevelopment:philosophicalinteresttransformedinto anaspirationtoinvestigatethescientific lawsofthedevelopmentoftheworld andsubordinatethemtotheneedsoftheflourishingcapitalistmodeofproduc- tion; traditional social structuresweredestroyed andatomised societies cre- ated;thethirdfactorwasthedevelopmentoftherelationshipbetweensociety andnature,basedontheprincipleofthefreeinterplayofforces.Consequently, Bauer associated theprogressofmoderncapitalismwith theoriginsofmod- ernnatural scienceand the relatedphilosophical systems:positivism, scient- ism, andmaterialism. According to his one-sided interpretation, the laws of thecapitalistmarketalonedeterminedthenewworldview.Theauthorargued thatchanges inproductionrelationsandproperty rightsdeterminedchanges inphilosophical thought, asdid thecharacterof internationaleconomicrela- tions andmodifications to the organisation of theworking process. Among these changeswere a shift from idealism tomaterialismand fromuniversal- istapproachesto individualism,atransitionfromaquantitativetoqualitative interpretationsofphenomena, anda shift fromcausal to teleologicalwaysof thinking. Concerning the interrelationship between social being and social consciousness, Bauer – andwewill elaborate on this shortly – attributed a decisive role to the former. This inevitably ledhimtooverstate thedegree to whichtheeconomicbasedeterminedthoughtstructures.Bauerconcludedhis treatise by stating thatmaterialism constituted the ‘last dogmatic systemof capitalism’, bound to be annihilated alongside capitalism’s demise.39 In The WorldviewofCapitalism, heoncemore identified thecritiquesofmechanistic materialismproposedbypositivismandMarxismwith a complete rejection ofmaterialismof anykind.Hemaintained that scienceandphilosophywere radicalopposites–ajudgementrootedinscientism. 38 Hanisch argues that Bauer’s work is ‘the result of an impressive intellectual effort and extensive knowledge of the history of philosophy, but it is reductionist. Philosophical thoughtismechanicallytracedbacktothesocio-economicconditions’(ourtranslation)– Hanisch2011,p.22. 39 Bauer1976f,p.931.