From: "matthew piscioneri" <mpiscioneri-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: [HAB:] Pragmatism [Ralph]
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 23:04:45 +0000


Ralph,

>Now what relationship does Habermas see if any between pragmatism and 
>irrationalism?

a *disconnected*, oppositional one I think. Pragmatism is about working 
things out together in a radical-democratic, equal community of inquireres, 
sort of a way.

This raises the question: what does *irrationalism* look like? I think I 
know what irrational behaviour is, and it does have something to do with 
Habermas's communicative reason (failure to provide reasons in support etc)


>And is pragmatism deemed to be a polar opposite of transendentalism?

Another quote from Aboulafia "Pragmatism, of course, is a philosophy that 
has an aversion to all forms of absolute certainty; fallibilism is its 
totem."


>And if so, is this not a dangerous pair of poles to be caught between?

Yes. IMO, it problematizes Habermas's work, although his *reasons* are 
understandable. The Holocaust factor obtains less and less a melodramatic 
purchase IMO as the north of our moral compass. Perhaps a more contemporary 
moral north that should guide our critique lies somewhere between Vietnam & 
Cambodia, Chile and El Salvador or Palestine.

MattP.

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