Karl Kautsky and the Twilight of Orthodoxy
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6352391 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephen Eric Bronner (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1982 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 580-605 |
| Publication date | 1982-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0090-5917 • E-ISSN: 1552-7476 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0090591782010004007 |
| OpenAlex | W2079355247 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 1 |
OR OVER A quarter of a century, Karl Kautsky was viewed as the predominant theoretician of social democracy and the authentic interpretor of the Marxist legacy. He was a friend of Marx and Engels, a prolific scholar,' the founder and editor of Die Neue Zeit, which was destined to become the major Marxist publication under his reign, as well as co-author with Eduard Bernstein of the Erfurt Programm, which would serve as the guiding document of German social democracy and the inspiration for other European socialist parties. But today he is almost forgotten and, when not, his name is generally greeted with contempt on the left.2 Usually, Kautsky is simply seen as the defender of Marxist orthodoxy against the revisionist onslaught. Actually, however, Kautsky's Marxism was never dialectical, always mechanistic, and-in concrete political terms-the formal victory that he won over his reformist opponents proved illusory. But Kautsky's fame and his influence on supporters as well as future opponents cannot be dismissed. Given the development of Marxism in its dominant manifestations, it is necesary to understand how Kautsky's thought reflects the values and presuppositions of social democracy in its most vibrant period. In Kautsky's view, Marxism was a single unified schema that encompassed and explained the totality of human existence. Throughout his life's work, Kautsky refused to accept any fundamental distinction between the natural and the social world. Following the Engels of the Anti-Duhring and The Dialectics of Nature, Kautsky
Democracy · Dialectic · Marxist philosophy · Orthodoxy · Political science · Politics · Theology · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,12 |
| Citation span | 1984 - 2020 (37) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |