Perspectives on Habermas

580 Pages·2000·35.864 MB·English

by  Lewis Edwin Hahn (Editor)

Perspectives on Habermas
EDITED BY
LEWIS EDWIN HAHN
. .
&
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Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data
Perspectives on Habermas / edited by Lewis Edwin Hahn.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8126-9426-0 (cloth: alk. paper) - ISBN 0-8126-9427-9
1. Habermas, Jllrgen. I. Hahn, Lewis Edwin, 1908-
B3258.H324 P47 2000
193-dc21
00-056961
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE IX
INTRODUCTION xi
PART ONE: COMMUNICATIVE RATIONALITY
1. JAMES BOHMAN: Distorted Communication: Fonnal Pragmatics
as a Critical Theory 3
2. LENORE LANGSDORF: The Real Conditions for the Possibility
of Communicative Action 21
3. CARLOS PEREDA: Assertions, Truth, and Argumentation 51
4. ALEXANDERBERTLAND: Habennas and Vico on Mythical Thought 71
5. PAGET HENRY: Myth, Language, and Habennasian Rationality:
Another Africana Contribution 89
6. GARTH GILLAN: Communicative Action Theory and the
Possibility of Theology 113
7. EDUARDO MENDIETA: Modernity's Religion: Habennas and
the Linguistification of the Sacred 123
8. THELMA Z. LAVINE: Philosophy and the Dialectic of Modernity 139
9. BETH 1. SINGER: Toward a Pragmatics of Artistic Utterance 157
PART TWO: COMMUNICATIVE ETHICS 173
10. W. S. K. CAMERON: Fallibilism, Rational Reconstruction, and
the Distinction between Moral Theory and Ethical Life 175
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
11. CHUNG-YING CHENG: Confucian Reflections on Habennasian
Approaches: Moral Rationality and Inter-humanity 195
12. ENRIQUE DUSSEL: The Fonnal Thought of ]Urgen Habennas
from the Perspective of a Universal Material Ethics 235
PART THREE: COMMUNICATIVE POLITICS 257
13. DOUGLAS KELLNER: Habennas, the Public Sphere, and
Democracy: A Critical Intervention 259
14. DAVID INGRAM: Individual Freedom and Social Equality:
Habennas's Democratic Revolution in the Social
Contractarian Justification of Law 289
15. PAULG. CHEVIGNY: Law and Politics in Between
Facts and Norms 309
16. LORENZO C. SIMPSON: On Habennas and Difference:
Critical Theory and the 'Politics of Recognition' 323
17. MARTIN BECK MATU~TiK: The Critical Theorist as Witness:
Habennas and the Holocaust 339
18. SCOTT BARTLETT: Discursive Democracy and a Democratic
Way of Life 367
19. MAX OELSCHLAEGER: Habennas in the "Wild, Wild West" 387
20. BILL MARTIN: Eurocentrically Distorted Communication 411
PART FOUR: COMPARISONS 423
A. HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
21. WILLIAM L. MCBRIDE: Habennas and the Marxian Tradition 425
22. MARIE FLEMING: Social Labor and Communicative Action 445
TABLE OF CONTENTS VII
B. HERMENEUTICS
23. G. B. MADISON: Critical Theory and Henneneutics: Some
Outstanding Issues in the Debate 463
24. RICHARD E. PALMER: Habennas versus Gadamer?
Some Remarks 487
C. SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND EDUCATION
25. LARRY A. HICKMAN: Habennas's Unresolved Dualism:
Zweckrationa/itiit as Idee Fixe 501
26. DAVID DETMER: Habennas and Husserl on Positivism and
the Philosophy of Science 515
27. ROBERT YOUNG: Habennas and Education 531
PART FIVE: THE FUTURE OF CRITICAL THEORY 553
28. JAMES L. MARSH: What's Critical about Critical Theory? 555
INDEX 569
PREFACE
T
his volume has been in the making for eight years. Professor Jurgen
Habermas was to be the subject of a volume of the Library of Living
Philosophers. Over the years we collected many fine essays written by the
best scholars we could find and they worked hard and fruitfully to complete
these essays.
In 1999, Professor Habermas wrote to tell me that because of other
events in his life he could no longer participate in this project. Because of
the high quality of the essays we received, it was decided to publish this
book as a scholarly monograph to honor the life work of Professor Habermas
and to give full recognition to those contributors who worked so hard to
complete this volume. We are extremely grateful to them for their efforts.
I am happy to acknowledge the warm support, encouragement, and
cooperation of Open Court Publishing Company, especially M. Blouke
Carus, David R. Steele, Kerri Mommer, Jeanne Kerl, and Jennifer Asmuth.
And I also very much appreciate continued support, understanding, and
encouragement from the administration of Southern Illinois University.
Moreover, I am grateful for the invaluable and unfailing assistance of the
staff of Morris Library. My warm gratitude goes to Christina Martin and the
Philosophy Department secretariat for help with numerous projects, as well
as to my colleagues who from diverse perspectives make common cause for
philosophy and a better university. My thanks also go to Lucian W. Stone,
Jr. and Darrell J. Russell for the careful work they did on the manuscripts
and proofs, and to Kevin Thompson for the Introduction in which he very
ably introduces the reader to the wide-ranging essays in this collection.
Finally, I am most grateful to Frances Stanley for her unfailing support and
ingenuity, as well as her excellent work in typesetting the volume. Without
her, this volume simply could not have been produced.
LEWIS EDWIN HAHN
EDITOR
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY AT CARBONDALE
JULv2000
INTRODUCTION
T
he thought of Jurgen Habermas represents today one of the most
significant contributions to the development of Western thought in the
twentieth century. Such judgments have perhaps become rather common
place in the wake both of his astoundingly diverse body of work and his vast
influence in so many fields of academic interest and beyond. Nevertheless,
his thought has initiated some of the most important philosophical debates
and shaped many of the defining trends of the intellectual landscape of the
postwar era. As a result, Haberrnas's work has generated a wealth of critical
discussion over the last several decades. Yet, a rather striking and persistent
divide has often characterized these investigations. They consist largely, on
the one hand, of works of careful exposition and sympathetic development
or, on the other, of general critiques and strident polemics. All too often the
fundamental systematic character of Habermas's thought has been lost in the
work of interpretation or rendered a mere cliche in vague denunciations.
The aim of the present volume is to begin to bridge this divide. It seeks
to do so by bringing together a collection of new essays that critically
evaluate the various facets ofHabermas's work in terms of the whole of his
thought. The hope is that in this light a better understanding and exploration
of the set of systematic problems that provide this work with its inner
coherence will become possible and, as a result, that the question of the
future of Critical Theory itself can once again be opened.
The organization of the volume reflects the systematic character of
Habermas's project. At the core of this work, of course, stands Habermas's
attempt to develop a communicative conception of human rationality.
Habermas continues to share the belief, following the early work of
Horkheimer and Adorno, that the creation of a genuinely rational social
order is deeply bound up with the formulation of a more expansive
conception of reason than that which came to dominance in the Western
intellectual climate of the postwar period. The development of the theory of
the norms of communicative competence and the defense of the eman
cipatory ideal of modernity that derives from this, which Habermas was able
XII INTRODUCTION
to achieve in the late seventies and early eighties, thus forms the theoretical
basis for the rest of his work. But it is his fundamental commitment to the
practical import of theory that has subsequently led him to explore the
ramifications of communicative rationality in the fields of ethics and political
theory, and its significance for debates concerning the proper roles of science
and technology. It has also forced him to reconsider his own intellectual
roots in Historical Materialism and the Frankfurt School, as well as the
contributions of such other traditions as Analytic Philosophy, Hermeneutics,
and American Pragmatism. The division of the essays presented here seeks
to facilitate examination of each of these aspects of Habermas's work.
Part I considers the basic elements of Habermas's theory of communi
cative rationality. The essays fall into three basic groups. James Bohman,
Lenore Langsdorf, and Carlos Pereda examine Habermas' s theory of
universal pragmatics, demonstrating its centrality to his project and
considering both its possible efficacy and inherent limitations. These are
followed by a set of essays that investigate various aspects of Habermas' s
defense of modernity. Alexander Bertland, Paget Henry, Garth Gillan, and
Eduardo Mendieta explore Habermas's attempt to distinguish modem
rationality from what he considers pre-Enlightenment forms of thought,
principally mythology and religion. Thelma Z. Lavine concludes this
discussion with a comparison of Habermas to several of the most important
historical figures in the debate over the project of rehabilitating the·
Enlightenment. The section closes with Beth J. Singer's innovative exten
sion of Habermasian pragmatics to a field that has thus far been rather
neglected, artistic creation.
Part II considers Habermas's theory of communicative ethics. W. S. K.
Cameron's essay combines careful exposition of Habermas's discourse
ethics with a critical examination of the relationship between the
universalistic elements of Habermas' s account and the significance of social
and historical context. The essays by Chung-ying Cheng and Enrique Dussel
bring important non-European perspectives to bear on Habermas's moral
theory, considering its unacknowledged assumptions as well as its relevance
and applicability outside the Western European traditions from which it
emerged.
Part III explores Habermas's theory of communicative politics. The
essays here again fall into three natural groups. Douglas M. Kellner, David
Ingram, and Paul G. Chevigny discuss the central tenets of the deliberative
model of legitimacy that underpin Habermas's account of political and legal
authority. The next set considers the relationship between Habermas's
defense of political democracy and various pressing social and political
INTRODUCTION XIII
issues. Lorenzo C. Simpson and Martin Beck Marustik explore the questions
of cultural diversity, identity, and responsibility that seem to present some
of the most substantive challenges to Habermas's views, while Scott Bartlett
and Max Oelschlaeger discuss the significance of a democratic way of life
and a sustained environment as prerequisites for the kind of institutional
democracy Habermas defends. Finally, Bill Martin examines the limitations
of the ethical-political universalism at the center of Habermas's political
project in terms of several of the stances he has adopted on matters of global
concern.
Part IV moves beyond the various elements ofHabermas's project proper
to its immediate roots and the traditions with which it has entered into
conversation, as well as its relevance for matters of practical concern.
William L. McBride and Marie Fleming take up the question ofHabermas's
relationship to Historical Materialism, examining in particular his own
reconstruction of this tradition and whether this provides an adequate
account of some of the most basic problems that have played such a central
role in this tradition. G. B. Madison and Richard E. Palmer return to the set
of issues that first arose in the encounter between Habermas and Gadamer
and assess the opposing positions. Finally, Larry A. Hickman and David
Detmer consider Habermas' s analyses of the role of science and technology
in modem society, while Robert Young probes Habermas's work in search
of its relevance for education.
Part V closes the volume by looking to the future. James L. Marsh's
work, Critique. Action. and Liberation, represents an attempt to engage with
Habermas's thought in a way that advances its fundamental concern with
emancipation and social transformation. The essay included here is an
elaboration of the basic claims of that work, but now with an eye to
specifying precisely where Marsh believes Habermas fails to hold true to the
task of liberation. Marsh does this by identifying those features of
Habermas's view that he believes lead him into conflict with his own earliest
concerns with the pathological and conservative tendencies supported by
contemporary forms of capitalism. This piece thus brings the volume full
circle. It assesses Habermas' s project of communicative rationality in terms
of its own underlying motive and in doing so points towards at least one way
of thinking about what the future of Critical Theory might be.
Together, then, the essays collected here afford a uniquely compre
hensive view of Habermas's thought, one that attends to its systematic
coherence without losing its critical perspective. The essays thus provide a
rich resource for further development of the various facets ofHabermas's
work and of the project that that work embodies. However, what is of the