Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 13:26:05 -0700
Subject: HAB: noch einmal: colonisation


Dear Habermas list, Kevin and Gary:

I have come across a  reference to the colonisation thesis in a recent text
by Habermas. It is to be found in _Die postnationale Konstellations.
Politische Essays_ (Suhrkmap, 1998). It is under the essays "Konzeptionen
der Moderne. Ein Rückblick aouf zwei Traditionen" 195-231.

Pages 225-228, especifically. Here is a rough translation of key last
paragraph of this section:

"The classical concept of modernity, as it was developed by Max Weber,
Lukacs, and the Frankfurt school are based on the abstract oppossition
between a disciplinary society and the vulnerable subjectivity of the
individual. When this is translated into intersubjective terms, this
confrontation is substituted by the circular processes between life world
and systems. This [translation] allows a greater sensibility with respect
to the ambivalence of social modernization. A growing social complexity
does not per se [sic, in original] result in alienating effects. It can
also broaden the the horizon of options [Optionsspeilräume] and the
capacities of learning, so long as the division of labor between the life
world and the systems remains intact [intakt bleid]. Social pathologies
result as a consequence of the invasion [Invasion, in original] by thre
relations of exchange and burocratic regulations into the core
communicative realms of the private and public spheres. These pathologies
are not restricted only to personality structures, they also extend to the
contitution of meaning and of the dynamic of social integration. This
interaction between system and lifeworld reflects itself in the unbalanced
[ungleichgewichtigen] division of labor between the three powers [Gewalten]
that in general maintained cohesive modern socities - between solidarity on
the one side, money and administrative power on the other." 228 

I strongly encourage people to read this outstanding essay by Habermas. I
had read most of the book, but had left this essay for last for work
reasons. Habermas summarizes his TCA and PDM in an amazing synthetic way,
and manages to say some nice things about postmodernity (!)

I apologize for not responding in detail to Gary's comments, but I am
trying to finish a manuscript. 



Eduardo Mendieta
Assistant Professor
Philosophy Department
University of San Francisco
2130 Fulton Street
San Francisco, CA 94117-1080

Tel: (415) 422-6313
Fax: (415) 422-2346




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