Subject: Re: [HAB:] Being-in-the-World [Ali]
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2004 02:46:04 +0000


Ali,

Very interesting:

>1) I agree with you on Heidegger Habermas relation. Interestingly at one 
>point in his twelve lectures on modernity Habermas uses lifeworld almost as 
>synonymous to 'being in the world' (p. 144).

IMO, Habermas's lifeworld is a detranscendental analogue of Heidegger's 
Being.
---------------------------------
>2) I am not so sure about your dichotomous distinction between Habermas' 
>semantics and his pragmatism though.

Fair enough. Ironically, I was also attempting to offer a *pragmatic* 
reading of his semantic theory (slightly different sense of *pragmatic* 
though :-))

>To be frank I do not really know what pragmatism (as against his 
>pragmatics) means in this context.

Neither do several of the contributor's to Aboulafia's collection. See also 
Hans Joas' essay on Habermas's pragmatic claims in the Honneth/Joas 
_Communicative Action_. For what it's worth, Habermas's pragmatism is very 
much a Continental version still showing the influence of German Idealism.
----------------------------
Very fruitful reading IMO:

>3) Having said that I see Habermas' major contribution along the similar 
>line as that of Foucault. His work (like that of Foucault) can be divided 
>into two distinct but mutually complementary tasks. On the hand Habermas 
>aims to overcome the notion of subject that is not situated and located in 
>'this world'. This is the task of detranscendentalisation whereby he 
>develops his critique of the traditional conception of subject. The second 
>task is to put forth a new conception of subjectivity that builds on this 
>'negative critique' of the philosophy of subject. This task is that of 
>developing a positive conception of subjectivity in the wake of the 
>detranscendentalisation achieved through the first task. This second task 
>is related to Habermas positive conception of 'transcendence from within'.

Without wanting to re-ignite old themes I continue to read these themes as 
Habermas's remodeling  of the subject/object dialectic from philosophy of 
consciousness; although the subject/intersubjective/lifeworld process to be 
sure is depicted by Habermas as a learning process.

Again I think to read Habermas from *without* the F.S school/ 
G.Idealism/Lukacs tradition is to under read his work. Habermas's 
methodology is SO hermeneutical... his engagement with [his]disciplinary 
tradition pervades 99% of his work. This then ties into notions of learning 
processes.

I found Steven Vogel's study of the F.S _Against Nature_ to be quite 
brilliant in its explication of the subject/object motif in H. & A. and then 
Habermas's response.
------------------
A quick extraneous ask of you as a Foucault scholar; recently read Marcuse's 
critique of Sartre. Marcuse's main line of critique was that Sartre's 
subjectivity presupposed a type of dangerous atomistic conception of social 
life. Also critical of Sartre's ideas of self-creation via role-playing.

Bells started to ring upstairs. Habermas's critique of Foucault is not too 
far from Marcuse's of Sartre, and very interesting (for me at least) is that 
I finally started to see the Sartre-Foucault connection which I had 
previously overlooked.

Any thoughts, references?

Cheers,

MattP

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