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Max Adler | |
|---|---|
_%7e1930_OeNB_10250227_A.jpg) Adler in 1930 | |
| Born | (1873-01-15)15 January 1873 |
| Died | 28 June 1937(1937-06-28) (aged 64) Vienna,Federal State of Austria |
| Education | |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna (Dr. jur., 1896) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Austromarxism |
| Institutions | University of Vienna |
| Main interests | Social philosophy, educational reform, social democracy |
Max Adler (/ˈædlər/;[1]German:[ˈaːdlɐ]; 15 January 1873 – 28 June 1937) was an Austrian jurist, politician andsocial philosopher; his theories were of central importance toAustromarxism. He was a brother ofOskar Adler.
Max Adler obtained his doctorate in law in 1896, and became a professional lawyer. He began to teach in the “Schönbrunn Circle” in the early summer of 1919. Max Winter, the deputy mayor of Vienna, was able to make rooms available in the main building of Schönbrunn Castle for theKinderfreunde Österreich (an Austrian association for children and families). In theSchönbrunner Erzieherschule, where young people were trained to be teachers, Max Adler and his colleaguesWilhelm Jerusalem,Alfred Adler,Marianne Pollak [de],Josef Luitpold Stern [de] andOtto Felix Kanitz were able to realize practical educational reforms. In 1920 he qualified atVienna University, where he became Extraordinary Professor ofSociology andSocial philosophy. From 1919 to 1921 he was aSocial-Democratic member of the regional parliament ofNiederösterreich.[2] Adler was active in Adult Education, and from 1904 to 1925, withRudolf Hilferding, editor of"Marx-Studien".
Max Adler's first theoretical work of note was a study"Max Stirner. Ein Beitrag zur Feststellung des Verhältnisses von Socialismus und Individualismus" (1894). The title sets the agenda for Adler's later theoretical activities. Although this study of Marx's scorned opponent seriously antagonizedMarxist Party theorists, and so remained unpublished, Stirner remained an influence on Adler's thinking throughout his life. Adler's biographer Alfred Pfabigan, upon sight of his unpublished papers, was surprised by his "intellectual relationship with Stirner owing to its high degree of continuity".[3]
Because Adler wanted to operate within the framework of the risingSocial Democratic movement, he was highly circumspect in his subsequent references to Stirner, and, while continuing to accord him great significance as Marx's "psychological counterpart", initially adopted most aspects of the doctrine ofHistorical Materialism: the essence of history is class struggle, and its realization entails a union of theory with revolutionary practice. He envisaged "ever greater harmony and perfection" arising from the contradictions inherent in the then state of society, until the proletariat, in the course of its revolution, would finally see "the pursuit of its own class interests" coincide with "the solidarity of society". In a departure fromorthodox Marxism, Adler's conception reduces thedialectic to a mere sociological methodology, not expressive of any specific dialectic intrinsic to the historical process. Adler also rejects the association betweenScientific Socialism andMaterialism: true Marxism was "in reality social idealism". For Adler,Historical Materialism essentially becomessubjective idealism. In all consistency, his particular interest then turned to producing an epistemological critique ofSociology, combining Marxist themes withKantian transcendentalism. According to Adler, "the individual consciousness is a priori socialized", insofar as every logical judgement already and necessarily includes reference to a multitude of assenting subjects; Adler's 'social a priori' transcendentally implies the possibility of social reality.
Adler's contributions to a Marxist general theory of the state emerged in the course of disputes withHans Kelsen andHermann Heller. Criticizing the formal concept ofdemocracy, Adler distinguished between political democracy, as a manifestation of the hegemony of the bourgeoisie, and asocial democracy, in which oppression was to be removed along with social differences, the whole to be replaced by "solidarity-based administrative reform" of society. For Adler, the establishment of a socialist society remained linked to the 'dismantling of the machinery of the state' along Marxist lines. Adler the politician permitted no compromises with the so-called "social chauvinism", or majority-Socialist "reformism". Not the least important aspect of theAustromarxism espoused by Adler,Otto Bauer andRudolf Hilferding was its relevance to the discussions on the left wing ofGerman Social Democracy before 1933.
