Date: Tue, 25 Mar 1997 10:24:35 -0600 ()
From: Steve Chilton <schilton-AT-d.umn.edu>
Subject: Re: HAB: Re: Habermas and Social Action


On Tue, 25 Mar 1997, Norma Romm wrote [among other things]:
> 
> Can you not be a humanist without being a universalist? Here again, the
> meaning of the terms can be regarded as symbols that invite further
> discussion.
> 
> I think perhaps it is too stereotypical to say that postmodernists are
> oriented (only) to the will to power. I think many of them recognise that
> communication can be threatened by power play  and that it would be better
> to set up different kinds of communication (that are less prone to exclude
> the styles of certain players). Their view of communication as conversation
> might differ from Habermas's view. I think it does no harm to try and
> engage seriously with their alternative view of "communication".

If Rob's comments are "stereotypical", this is because of the
position post-modernists inevitably find themselves in.  I don't
think his comments refer to post-modernists' fundamental intentions
(Foucault as Hitler?) but rather to the implications of their
position.

I am happy to engage seriously alternative views of communication as
long as they recognize that at the end of the day, we have to have a
way of coordinating action.  If we don't, then the actions actually
taken can only be force of one form or another (deceit, cooptation,
etc. all being included:  anything not arising out of free consent). 
That's what makes it necessary for a humanist to be a universalist
(committed not the universality of one's own opinion, of course, but
rather to the need to recognize and reconcile all positions). Again,
this doesn't refer to people's humanist intentions but rather to the
implications of their position. 

Hi to all,

Steve

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| Stephen Chilton, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science |
|                University of Minnesota-Duluth / Duluth, MN 55812-2496 |
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| "If you think that freedom is nothing beyond the ability to do as you |
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| that ability, it must be a free society.  If critics claim that it is |
| still not a free society, because people cannot rationally identify   |
| with their roles in society, or because there is no meaning in any of |
| the choices it provides people, then you will dismiss such claims as  |
| confused, or reinterpret them as demands for something other than     |
| freedom.  Of course, it would be nice to have those things, you think,|
|and maybe someday we will find a way to get them;  in the meantime we  |
| should at least be glad that we are living in a free society.  But you|
| might be all wrong; the critics may be saying exactly what they mean, |
| and you may simply be failing to understand them."                    |
|     -- Allen W. Wood HEGEL'S ETHICAL THOUGHT (New York: Cambridge     |
| University Press, 1990)                                               |
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