On habermas:
Hmmmm.... Imagine me, defending Habermas. Or am I really? I should assure
everyone on this list that, as far as these sort of polemical alignments
go, I consistently align with Foucault against Habermas. All of these
criticisms I endorse entirely and without reservation. Habermas.... I mean,
how does this sound: " ...the types of legal regulation of social relations
are good indicators of the boundaries between the system and lifeworld"
(Theory of Communicative Action, p. 309).....
And who regulates this legal regulation? the police! Lyotard's
accusation of totalitarianism is entirely grounded.
However, as I notice these alignmnents assuming such predictable forms
(Foucault vs. Habermas) I find myself looking for ways to refigure this
quite routenized opposition .
At bare minimum, I would say that reading Habermas is a worthwhile
thing to do for the simple reason that his comparative theoretical
reconstructions are quite rigorous, if ultimately only set up to confirm a
narrow conception of communicative possibilities.
IN this sense, I would argue for the importance of Habermas's work as
far as it situates more interesting thinkers in a somewhat challenging
polemical frame. Foucault-Habermas being an excellent example. this claim
could be extended to anyone interested in taking critical theory or post
structuralism seriously.
Is a stronger claim for habermas possible in the light of a
Foucaultian perspective? Hmmm....maybe not.
I think JLN's comment about aesthetic reasoning just doesn't apply to
habermas. Habermas chastises earlier appeals on behalf of Critical Theory
to "irrationalist" or "aesthic" properties of commicative interaction as
ultimately romantic.
Parker Douglas writes: "Interesting...but could you say more about what you
mean by "colonizes
the subjective world?" Well, colonizes the life-world is the proper
phrasing..... I guess when you have arrested the substance of human freedom
in concretely verifiable practices (rational communication in day to day
life), it becomes possible to speak of "colonization".
sam
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Sam Binkley