Page - 74 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

74 chapter 2 theworkingclassshouldaspiretosocialisminthenameofsocietyasawhole. Accordingtotheethicalsocialists, itwasimpossibletoprovethehistoricaland moralnecessityofsocialismbasedonMarx’stheoryofsocialdevelopment.His- toricalmaterialismcouldonlyprovideempiricalknowledgeaboutrealityand thusserveasabasisforprognosesconcerningsocialdevelopment.Inhispaper EthicsofPureWill,HermannCohenwentsofarastoclaimthatit is impossible to deduce an ethical ideal from the empirical notionof society employed in Marx’swork.Cohenproposes to introduceatranscendentalunderstandingof society in parallel to a reality-based conception and thus establish the ideal transcendentally.57LetusnoteinadvancethatBauerintegratedtheseelements intohisconceptdrawingonCohen. According toCohenandotherneo-Kantians,Marx committed two funda- mentalerrors.His firsterrorwasthewayinwhichheunderstoodtherelation- ship between economics and consciousness.58 Because of this, he (1) down- played the realm of ideas as an independent driving force of social life, (2) tracedback ideas to thematerial conditionsofhuman life inhistorical-mate- rialist fashion,and(3)conceived ideas inthespiritofpositivismandascribed tothemapsychologicalorsocialcolouring. IntheircritiqueofMarx, theneo- Kantiansassertedthatideassuchasthegoodinman,justice,andfreedom,had transcendental features, i.e. theywerepurelymoralprincipleswithregulative power.59Marx’s second fundamental errorwas linked to the fact thathe, fol- 57 Therearepre-established, transcendental socialbondsat thebasisofasociety thuscon- ceived,which, inturn,aredeterminedbythesphereofcommonmoralgoals.Thisdouble approachtoconceivingofsocietymeansthattherealsoexistsanethicalsocietyasidefrom thesocietymadeupofproducersof consumergoods: i.e. ahumancommunity thathas free,autonomous,naturalgoals.While theformerviewisdeterminedbyeconomicprin- ciples, thelatterisbasedonaformalmoralprinciplerootedintheideaofhumanenessas agoal initself–seeCohen1910,p.223. 58 Inneo-Kantianism,Rudolf Stammlerattempted to reverse theMarxian relationshipbe- tweeneconomicsandlaw.SeeStammler1896and1920. 59 Karl Vorländerwrites: ‘The transcendental ideology leads to a systemof cognition that isnot aprinciple, butwhich is indeedan indicative target towardswhichonecanplan’ (our translation).Original: ‘Die transzendentale Ideenlehre führtaufeineSystematikder Erkenntnis, die zwar keinPrinzip ist, vondemsichdasBesondere ableiten kann,wohl aber ein Richtziel, auf das hin projektiertwerden kann’ – Vorländer 1955, p. 374. One mightadd the following: a socialhistoryoforigins, or else the realityof an idea, cannot be found, becausebeing and the ideal are twodifferent formsof appearance: one is an objectivationofnature; theother is anobjectivationof themind.Being is a fact that is accessibletoscientificexperience,whiletheidealisafactthatisaccessibletophilosophic realisation.Theoppositionbetweenthetwoisapermanentfactorinintegrallyconceived