Seite - 77 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

thematerialist view of history 77 betweensectionalandcommoninterests,andgrantedthesamedegreeoffree- domtoeveryindividual(theKantianethicalcommunityofa‘purposefulstate’, aZweckstaat). Vorländer,WoltmannandConradSchmidtwereall convinced that the formulaof thecategorical imperativewascongruentwiththecentral ideaofsocialism.64Themoralnecessityofsocialism,arguedtheMarburgians, was a duty placed uponus by the categorical imperative. This dutywas not subject to thepassageof time,as itwas rooted inautonomousreason.Social- istmorality couldnot be takenas a given, nor could it be adoptedonce and forall, butwasa systemofvalues thathad tobecontinuously fought for.The formalismimplicit intheneo-Kantians’conceptionexcludedthepossibilityof establishingageneralethicallawthroughgradualmoraltransition.Ethicalval- uesweremerelygoals for thesocialistmovement toorientate itself towards– theypossessed thequalityofpostulatesonly in theKantian sense.Theques- tionastohowtheyshouldbeobtained(indeed, theircompletefulfilmentwas impossible)was of little interest to theMarburgians.As canbe seen in their statements, they did not believe that the fight of theworking class to bring aboutanewsocio-economicsystemwoulddecideover thedemiseofcapital- ismandarrivalofsocialism.Rather,thiswouldoccurwhenthepeoplebecame consciousoftheirlongingforfreedomandcollectiverespectofjustice.Accord- ing to theMarburgians, the socialisedownershipof themeansofproduction wouldprovide the legal foundation to regulateco-operationbetweenhuman beings insocialism. Incontrast toMarx’sposition, thoughinaccordancewith theidealistbasicassumptionsoftheirownsystem,theydidnotviewsocialisa- tionasthecoreofthenewsystem,butasatool tochangeconsciousness.65 64 Schmidtwrites: ‘Itisquiteclearthatthistypeofethical-socialidealism,whichisotherwise completely independent of Kant’s specifically rationalistmoral philosophy, andwhose principleultimatelyderives fromthe freedomanddevelopment interest of the species, isnotnecessarily–asonewould think–acloud-cuckoo-landoutlookthatputs its trust in the sheer persuasive appeal of the ideal’ (our translation) – Vorländer 1926, p. 167. According toWoltmann, the socialist idea, ‘samerightsandduties regardlessof sexand ancestry’, corresponds toKant’s idea of a general legislation that embodies thehighest moralprinciple–seeWoltmann1974,p. 116. 65 Compare Szyszkowska 1970, p. 87. Hans-Jörg Sandkühler, aGermanphilosopher at the UniversityofBremen,criticisedtheethicalpositionof theneo-Kantianssharply: ‘Tosac- rificeahistoricalperspective in favourofananthropologicalormetaphysical restitution ofreasonassubstanceisnotwithoutconsequences: it involveslimitingethicstoaformal transcendentaltheoryofmorality.(…)Thematerialabstractnessofthe“categoricalimper- ative”,which is inadequate for thepolitical requirements of socialism,makes clear that neo-Kantianethics,asatheoryofought,wasunabletofulfil itspurposeasacomplement toMarxismbecause it insufficientlyconsideredMarxism’(ourtranslation)–Sandkühler