On The Bernstein's Turning To Ethics

Bernstein is a controversial figure in the history of the communist movement.At the beginning of the Second International,Bernstein was well-known as a famous theorist of the German Social Democratic Party,however,he was criticized most in the history of socialist ideology because of his revisionism.Scholars at home and abroad mostly have studied and criticized the ideas about Bernstein from the perspective of revisionism,but this paper studies them from the perspective of the turning to ethics.As we all know,there was a trend of “Go back to Kant” during the Second International,and Bernstein,as his contemporaries,was not alone.Therefore,the study on Bernstein's turning to ethics could more clearly understand the development and changes of Marxism in the Second International;what's more important is that this study can fill the domestic theoretical gap in Bernstein's turning to ethics,in this way,we can understand the ideological change of Bernstein from another aspect,which makes the study on Bernstein more abundant and comprehensive.This paper mainly discusses the Turning of Bernstein's Ethics from the following four chapters:The first chapter mainly discusses the social and historical background of Bernstein's era and Bernstein's own ideological development process,combs and analyzes the reason why Bernstein moved towards the turning to ethics.The failure of the Paris Commune in 1871 marked the decline of the First International organization with Marx and Engels as the guiding core,and the international communist movement fell into a trough.At the same time,European and American countries,especially Germany,have gradually emerged from the crisis of the first Great Depression and their economy,science and technology are in a period of rapid development,after the establishment of the Second International,especially the establishment of the Social Democratic Party in various European countries,the legitimate parliamentary struggle has increasingly become the mainstream of the socialist struggle.At this time,Marxism also encountered unprecedented new challenges.The “pulpit socialists” in the coat of Marxist scientific socialism and under the guise of explaining Marxism,but in the business of slandering and opposing Marxism.The neo-Kantists directly proclaimed that Marxism was “outdated” and advocated replacing scientific socialism with ethical socialism.These new changes have had a very big impact on the Bernstein's turning to ethics,in fact,the turning of Bernstein's ethics is also closely related to his personal experience.The second chapter mainly discusses the logical premise of the turning of Bernstein's ethics.In the first place,in a sense,Marxism is a doctrine that starts from man and ultimately makes man a real man,but the leaders of the German Social Democratic Party in the second international have vulgarized it,taking it an inherent necessity that people are ultimately developed freely.A series of changes in reality have shaken Bernstein's belief in this inherent necessity,being faithful to this new change,Bernstein believes that people should pursue the secular value.Bernstein believes that even if the way of parliamentary struggle has the possibility of weakening the revolutionary nature of the Social Democratic Party,it is insignificant compared to raising the political rights of the working class and increasing their material interests;at the same time,in order to give people freedom in current political and economic activities,Bernstein began to consciously put aside the “final purpose” of Marxism,because Bernstein believed that there was no need to wait passively for the arrival of socialism and communism,people can start to work hard for the final free and overall development immediately;with this consciousness,Bernstein further opposed the national view of Marx and began to worship the “people-state” mentioned by Lassalle,this national view advocates that workers do not need to carry out violent revolutions,but only need to improve their intellectual abilities and moral consciousness,because with the popularization of universal suffrage and the increasing number of workers,the opposition between the working class and the bourgeoisie would gradually disappear,at this time,the country is no longer a country that must die out as mentioned in Marxism,but a “people-state” composed of the common will of all the people,which of course does not need to be broken,but gradually transitions to a socialist society.Therefore,workers only need to actively pursue the secular value,they can achieve socialism,and they can achieve free and overall development,rather than waiting passively.Then,in terms of social conception of history,since he no longer agreed with the interpretation of Marx's social conception of history as “economic determinism”,Bernstein began to resort to ethical factors.He believes that in addition to economic factors,ethical factors such as interests,cognition,and morality determine the development of social history,these are also the driving forces recognized by Marx's historical materialism that can promote the development of social history;at the same time,in order to find a new theoretical basis for the “outdated” Marxist theory and keep the theory present,Bernstein applied the neo-Kantian slogan “Go back to Kant”,intending to borrow Kant's “critical principle” to criticize the “traditional dogma” in Marxist theory.In order to increase the persuasive power of his point of view,Bernstein further advocated “go back to Lange”,intending to borrow Lange's point of view,that is,to use ethical and other conceptual forces to counter the dogma of the inherent economic necessity in historical materialism.Bernstein's intention was to use Lange to warn other Social Democrats to dare to admit “errors” in Marxist theory and thus seek “new truth”,which is actually Bernstein's Eclectic conception of history.The third chapter mainly discusses the logical inference of the turning of Bernstein's ethics.Bernstein's turning to ethics that led him to reinterpret Marxist philosophy and political economy and to formulate strategies for socialist struggle differently from the past.Bernstein argues that Marxist historical materialism should not be “economic determinism”,but should focus on both economic and ethical factors.At the same time,if Marxism wants to become a science,it should abandon the Hegelian dialectics that will only fall into the vicious circle of “conceptual self-development”.In order to maintain a true scientific attitude,Bernstein insisted on applying an agnostic way of thinking.In terms of political economy,Bernstein believes that Marx's concept of value is only a “pure thinking concept”,and that surplus value is only “a formula based on hypothesis.” Therefore,the surplus value should not be regarded as an objective law,it is the real duty of the surplus value to stimulate the justice and morality of the working class as an ethical motivation.At the same time,Bernstein believes that the actual situation has proved that parliamentary struggle can improve the political and economic freedom of the people,so it is a good idea to compromise to and form coalition with the bourgeois in a timely manner for the benefit of the people.The pursuit of “people-state” also made Bernstein ignore the final goal of the proletariat,and think that movement is everything.At the same time,in order to maintain the freedom and power that the working class has obtained,Bernstein strongly opposed large-scale strikes by the masses of workers.The fourth chapter mainly discusses the critical reflection on the turning of Bernstein's ethics.After discovering that there is a “problem” in the Marxist theory he understood,Bernstein first stood up and opposed it,and from the perspective of human rights and interests,he declared that people should pursue the secular value.By doing this,Bernstein tried to maintain the “presence” of Marxism on the one hand.And on the other hand,it is also a refutation of the attitude of the German Social Democratic Party to dogmatically understanding Marxist theory and passively waiting for the arrival of revolution and socialism,from this perspective,the Bernstein's turning to ethics is partially reasonable;however,the crux of the question is that Bernstein himself did not really understand the connotation of Marxism,nor did he clearly distinguish between Marxism and Marxism that were vulgarly understood by the Social Democratic Party.Obviously,the turning of Bernstein's ethics was based on a misunderstanding of Marxist theory,and this error eventually led Bernstein's views to deviate from the basic principles of true Marxism.In general,Bernstein's slandering of Marx's realistic human being and historical materialism and social development laws made us have to critically reflect on the turning of Bernstein's ethics from a Marxist standpoint.