Seite - 76 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

76 chapter 2 forerunner of German socialism. For them, Kant’s andMarx’s ideals of the state, the democratic ideals contained in their respective theories, and their negativeattitude towardscolonialism,militarism,andprivilegesgrounded in birthright – i.e. landed property – testified to a substantial convergence in their thinking.62However,hisargumentcarried farmoreweightonanethical level. In fact, Vorländer thought that theMarxian ‘association, inwhich the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all’ was analogous to the Kantian ‘community of men of free will’ as a goal in and of itself. This convergence provided sufficient reason to seek principles for the socialistmovement inKant’s ethics. Theywere impossible todeduce fromthematerialistviewofhistory,whichwas limitedtoanalysingeconomic phenomena and explaining theworld in terms of cause and effect. Kantian ethics, in contrast, accepted reason – defined by its general and objectively valid requirements–as a foundation formorality. It stressed theuniversality andtimelessnessofethicalprinciples. InaccordancewithKant,theMarburgiansassumedthatmoralityhadauni- versal, timeless character and encompassed all human beings. At the same time, theyarguedthat thesocialist ideamustbebasedonmoralityconceived in thisway. That is to say, the question onhow far the systemof the future would live up to their requirements – i.e. general justice, equality, and free- dom–couldonlybeansweredwithreferencetouniversalandgeneralethical ideas thatcouldnotberelativised.These ideasdefinedthegeneralvalidityof moral values andmade for a paradigm according towhich a desired social model couldbe shaped.Hence, theMarburgians concluded that thepursuit of socialismmust restonconscious, rationalwill,meaning ithad tobeapos- tulate of practical reason. The ideaof socialism, then,waspurely regulatory: ‘The social ideal ismerely a formalmethodwithwhich to govern and judge theempirically intrudingmaterial ofhistorical justiceandsocialwill accord- ing to thecommunal idea.This ideaservesas the fundamental lawofhuman purpose’ (our translation).63For theMarburgians, onequestionmattered the most:whyshouldsocialismbetheonecrucialgoalofsocialstruggleandobject- iveofmoralaspiration?Theiranswerwas, essentially, that socialismought to beconsideredanaiminandofitself,becauseitrepresentedanethical ideal. It couldalsoserveasabasisforasocialorderthathadovercomethecontradiction 62 CompareKołakowski2005,pp.556–7. 63 ‘DassozialeIdealbezeichnetlediglicheineformaleMethode,denempirischsichaufdrän- genden Stoff des geschichtlichenRechtes, des sozialenWollens nach demGemeinsch- aftsgedankenalsdemGrundgesetzdermenschlichenZweckezuleitenundzurichten’– Stammler1896,quotedfromVorländer1926,p. 132.