Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 04:33:32 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: HAB: Re: Jargon and comprehensibility


I joined this list because I thought it would help me
prepare for a presentation that I am giving today on
Habermas in a graduate seminar on contemporary social
theory.  I have read some of Thomas McCarthy's stuff, some
other secondary sources, vol. 1 of the ToCA, and a few of
Habermas's other works.  My exposure to Habermas began just
ten weeks ago.  Although sometimes I have had to pick up a
book to decipher exactly what the discussion was about, I
did not see this as a bad thing. 

I would have to disagree with the assertion that the list
is specialized to the point of incomprehensibility. 
Although I have not yet posted any responses, I have found
the discussions both productive and fun.  I have been on
many lists of an 'academic' nature, and this is possibly
the most serious and stimulating online community that I
have been a part of.  This is not a list for beginners, but
it is far from being inaccessible to dedicated outsiders.  

Now that I have had my "coming out" I would like to pose an
important question.  Habermas writes about the colonization
of the lifeworld by the system.  When I first read about
this segment of his work, I was surprised that he used the
term "colonization." I checked the original German, and it
was a good translation.   I understand his purpose in using
the term, but I think that there may be better ways to
express his point.  It would seem more fitting to describe
the situation more in terms of a contradiction, or in a
more Weberian sense, as a kind of bloated bureaucracy, or
diseconomy of scale.   It's also possible that I'm not
grasping Habermas's full meaning here, and I would like to
know what you all have to say.  

TschuB,
Adam
==*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *    *
* Was entstanden ist, muB vergehen  *  All that is created, must perish*
* Was vergehen,  auferstehen        *  All that perishes, is resurrects*
* Hoer auf zu beben,                *  Cease your Trembling            *
* Bereite dich zu leben             *  Prepare to Live!                *
*     * Gustav Mahler, Symphony No.2 "Auferstehung"   *     *     *    *
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