Page - 80 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

80 chapter 2 drive,which, essentially, is of the samecharacter as the self-preservationand reproductivedrive.Kautskywrote: Because themoral law is the universal instinct, of equal force to the instinct of self preservation and reproduction, thence its force, thence itspowerwhichweobeywithoutthought, thenceourrapiddecisions, in particular cases, whether an action is good or bad, virtuous or vicious; thencetheenergyanddecisionofourmoral judgement,andthencethe difficultytoproveitwhenreasonbeginstoanalyseitsgrounds.Thenone finally findsthat tocomprehendallmeanstopardonall, thateverything isnecessary, thatnothingisgoodandbad.68 Onemay notice that Kautsky did not attempt to explain here, or anywhere else in Ethics, the criteria uponwhich to judge actions. Nor did he disclose the principles humans should adopt so that their actionsmight bemorally condoned. One can therefore assume that he preferred standards of action beneficial to human development. He was not convinced that behavioural norms had a transhistorical or universal character, a quality he attributed only to biological factors.Moral norms, in contrast, depended on themode of production and technological progress. According to Kautsky, they were determinedbytheclassstructureofsociety. Kautsky reiteratedMarx’s idea: economicdevelopmentgoeshand inhand withintensifyingclasscontradictions,leadingtotheemergenceofanewsocial class. Its victory in the class struggle is synonymouswith the formation of a newmorality. Even so, this newmorality does not set, according toKautsky, anynewobjectives; its role is limited tonegating theexistingmorality.Goals of action cannotbededuced fromethical ideals since suchapositionwould presupposeanextra-empiricallyexistingideal.Astotherelationshipbetween consciousnessandsocialbeing,KautskyalsochampionedaMarxianperspect- ive.He lookedat three aspects of this relation: ontological (consciousness as 68 ‘Weil das Sittengesetz ein tierischer Trieb ist, der denTriebender Selbsterhaltung und Fortpflanzungebenbürtig,deshalbseineKraft,deshalbseinDrängen,demwirohneÜber- legengehorchen,deshalbunsererascheEntscheidungineinzelnenFällen,obeineHand- lung gut oder böse, tugendhaft oder lasterhaft; deshalb die Entschiedenheit undEner- gieunseres sittlichenUrteils, unddeshalbdieSchwierigkeit, es zubegründen,wenndie Vernunft anfängt, die Handlungen zu zergliedern und nach ihrenGründen zu fragen. Dann findetman schließlich, dass alles begreifen alles verzeihen heißt, dass alles not- wendig,nichtgutoderböse ist’–Kautsky 1906,pp.63–4,compareKautsky 1909,pp.97– 8.