Beyond Universal Pragmatics: Studies in the Philosophy of CommunicationThe explicit ambition of this collection is to move 'beyond' the Universal Pragmatics of Jürgen Habermas. It is without doubt an ambitious programme whose architect has led since the 1960s a series of reflections on the rational potential of western society from the Enlightenment to the present. However, this theoretical emphasis on the irreducibility of the rational content of debate cannot avoid abstracting communicative universals from the empirical communication practices which are always embedded in multiple contexts of discourse, identity, media and institutions. This tension in Habermas's oeuvre has developed an antagonistic potential. An example of this antagonism can be seen in the distorting effects of a normative theory of communication whose very normativity means turning a blind eye to a history of social communication. For example, Habermas infamously neglects the constitutive role played by the media in constructions of what is held to be 'public' and even his more recent revisions do not resolve this dilemma. The nine contributions in this volume from the fields of psychology, politics, media, epistemology and aesthetics set out to move beyond the influence of communicative universals and propose alternative approaches to the challenge of reconciling autonomy, interaction and social organisation. |
Contents
EDMOND WRIGHT | 3 |
MARK OLSSEN | 25 |
viii | 44 |
BART VANDENABEELE AND STIJN VAN IMPE | 59 |
SIEGFRIED J SCHMIDT | 85 |
JOÃO SALGADO AND JAAN VALSINER | 101 |
KATERINA STRANI | 123 |
LOET LEYDESDORFF | 149 |
TINO G K MEITZ | 177 |
COLIN B GRANT | 201 |
Notes on the Contributors | 231 |
Common terms and phrases
actors aesthetic judgements analysis Archaeology argues argument autopoiesis Cambridge Cappelen and Lepore Chaos Theory cognitive Communicative Action complexity concept consciousness consensus constitute context contingency critique culture developed dialogical differentiated dimensions Discipline and Punish discourse distinction dynamic Éditions Gallimard empirical environment epistemological Foucault function Habermas Habermas's Habermasian hermeneutics historical human implies intention interaction intersubjectivity judgement of taste Jürgen Habermas Kant Kant's knowledge language Leydesdorff lifeworld linguistic London Luhmann Luhmann's theory meaning Michel Foucault munication Niklas Luhmann normative notion object observation ontological operate organisations perspective philosophy pleasure political Polity Press possible post-structural practices presuppositions programme rationality reality models reference referential reflexivity relations Searle Searle's selection self-organisation self-referential semantic semiotic sense Simmel social systems society sociology speaker speech act statement structure systems theory theoretical Theory of Communicative tion transcendental truth underdeterminacy universal communicability universal pragmatics universal validity University Press utterance validity claims Valsiner