Page - 130 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

130 chapter 4 reciprocal relationships. ‘The nation’, hewrote, ‘does not exist by virtue of a formalconvention,but is–logically,nothistorically–anteriortoeveryformal convention’.24Accordingtohispremise,theintroductionofexternalregulation (language, legal andmoral norms)was immaterial in termsof the genesis of thesociety-nation,since‘externalregulationistheformofsocialcollaboration betweenindividualsunitedbythecommunity’.25Affinity,conversely,emerged becauseoftheinternal,apriorisocialisationofhumannature. Havingestablishedhisclassificationofthenationonatranscendentalbasis, Bauer then attempted to define it. The result of his analysis was that the nation always represented a unity between the community of nature and the community of culture. The following observations will illustrate (1) the evidenceonwhichBauerbasedhisdefinitionof thenation, and(2)what the proposeddefinitionmeansfromBauer’sperception. Beginninghis inquirieswith the theoryofheredity, Bauer criticisednot so muchtheinsightsofDarwinandWeismann,butthepracticabilityofbiological andnaturalist theoryfor investigatingsocialphenomena. Inhisview,heredity theorysought theoriginsof thenation inspecificorganicmatter, i.e. inabio- logical seedpasseddown fromgeneration to generation (germplasm). Bauer referred to positions based onDarwin andWeismann’s theories as ‘national materialism’. Itwashisbelief that thepositive roleofbiologismrestedonone simpleaccomplishment.Thatis, itchallengedthelegitimacyofspiritualistand idealisttheories,whichsuggestedtheexistenceofamysteriousspiritpermeat- ingthenation, revealing itself inallactivitiesandformsofconsciousness that thenationproduces. That aside, hedidnotbelieve that ‘nationalmaterialist’ theories had any explanatory value.Moreover, he objected to thembecause theycapitulatedtoabiologicalandrace-anthropologicaldeterminismthathe rightlyregardedasanearlystageofracisttheories.26Whendrawingonthethe- oryofheredity,Bauermodifieditsscopeandrange.Hedidsoinoppositionto SocialDarwinism,butalso soughtapossible transition tohistoricalmaterial- ismwithinhereditarytheory.Thehereditaryprocess, inhisview,encompassed twomutually dependent processes: (1) the inheritance of physical and intel- 24 Bauer1996,pp. 110–11. 25 Bauer1996,p. 111. 26 According to these theories, causal relationships have one sole form: if a occurs, then b is its strictly defined consequence. Bauer referred to this causality as ‘substantial’ or natural. He explained it as follows: although the same processes occur in the natural andhuman-madeworlds, andalthoughphenomenaare linked in a chainof cause and effect,differentkindsofcausalityapplyinthetwospheres: thesebeingnaturalandsocial causalityrespectively(thesecategorieshavealreadybeenexplained).