Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848
amelia
(Amelia)
#1
Jews between Volk and Proletariat { 171
of an entity that is structurally incapable of fulfilling them. Supporters of Jewish
emancipation willy-nilly support the cause’s particularistic framework instead
of opposing the very principle of division and privilege, which Bauer sees as the
fundamental obstacle to universal liberation.
David Leopold underscores the inconsistency in Bauer’s treatment of Chris-
tianity and its relationship to Judaism in his writings on the Jewish Question.
On the one hand, Bauer casts Christianity as superior to and indeed a super-
session of Judaism. On the other hand, he considers Christianity as merely one
manifestation of the egoistic principle undergirding all religion.^94 Within the
framework of a general critique of religious egoism Bauer urges Jews and Chris-
tians alike to overcome their religious limitations and embrace universal human
self-consciousness. Although he states at the end of “Die Fähigkeit der heutigen
Juden und Christen, frei zu werden” that this will be much more difficult for
Jews than Christians, he at least appears to consider it possible for Jews as well.
However, the thrust of the competing framework—Bauer’s secularized Chris-
tian supersessionism—defines Jews as essentially unable to achieve free subjec-
tivity and participate in the unfolding drama of infinite self-consciousness.
Moggach has attempted to square Bauer’s writings on the Jewish Question
with his mode of “republican rigorism,” an austere form of republicanism that
demands that citizens accord with (an essentially Kantian model of ) universal
moral principles—not only outwardly, in their actions, but also inwardly, in their
interests and motivations.^95 Bauer’s demand to transcend religious conscious-
ness inwardly does indeed appear to apply to all potential citizens. Jews, it is
true, would have to stop being Jews, but Christians would likewise have to stop
being Christians. Bauer’s more pernicious strain, however, reveals the paral-
lelism in his treatment of Jews and Christians to be only apparent. As I read
Bauer, he understands the enunciatory Catch- 22 in which he sees Jews caught
whenever they demand civil rights to be, finally, ontologically determined and
inescapable. He argues not only that Jews need to do more work than Christians
to achieve human freedom, but also that they are incapable of doing precisely
this work. This strain in Bauer excludes Jews from humanity and makes his po-
sition on Jewish emancipation incompatible with any republican model worthy
of the name.
As Moggach points out, the key to Bauer’s version of the Hegelian unity of
concept and being lies in a teleology of human freedom, an understanding of
human history as in constant development toward greater freedom and self-
determination. By fusing ontology and history in defining human essence as
the historical development of free self-consciousness, Bauer defines people,
such as Jews, whom he deems to have outlived their contribution to this te-