From: Blue8682-AT-aol.com
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1999 00:02:31 EST
Subject: Re: HAB: wahrheit und rechtfertigung


In a message dated 11/16/1999 11:39:01 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
gedavis-AT-britannica.com writes:

> But these perpsectives are outdated, since the desideratum of an 
> epistemological justification of critical social theory directly by way of 
a 
> linguistic pragmatic of reason has become unnecessary.  Since then, Juergen 
> Habermas has analyzed the pragmatic prerequisites of communicative action 
> independently of transcendental conditions of understanding.

These terms are so equivocal that unless you are reading a lot of Habermas 
and his secondary literature the distinction may elude you.  When he says the 
linguistic pragmatic of reason, he is referring to a pragmatics based on 
reason which Habermas had differentiated into instrumental reason, practical 
aesthetic reason, and communicative reason.  This rationalization counters 
the older reason based critiques of Frankfurt.  Therefore, the next statement 
follows in that Habermas has distinguished communicative action from the 
transcendental analyses.  The operative word is transcendental denoting a 
lower form of rationalization than the differentation of reason proposed by 
Habermas.

Fred Welfare


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