Rectification Redux:
Jürgen Habermas Meets Confucius
New Mexico-Texas
Philosophical Society
2014 Spring Conference
University of Texas at El Paso
Robert Ferrell & Joe Old
El Paso Community College
Our impulse...
Media lies and distortion lead to anything but democracy
・John Kyl's statement on Planned Parenthood on the floor of the US Senate is iconic for and em
・Weapons of Mass Destruction
・To Voter Suppression
・To Deregulation and trickle-down economics
・“The statement was not intended as a factual statement.”
・
US Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) said
On the floor of the US Senate on April 8, 2011
・That abortion is “over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.”
・Called on this, his office issued this statement:
・“His remark was not intended to be a factual statement.”
・The facts are that about only 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's resources are devoted to abo
・
The problem: Part 1
Kyl's statement represents instrumental reason (even w
・This approach does not represent the beliefs of the ma
・Such reasoning is widely used in American politics toda
・
・Obstructionism
directed at entire Obama agenda from inaugu
・Filibuster in the Senate and continued attempts to repeal Oba
The
This is not a new issue
Confucius
・Solon
・Thomas More
・James Madison
・
Jürgen Habermas
And now...
・
The problem: Part 1
Kyl's statement represents instrumental reason (even w
・This approach does not represent the beliefs of the ma
・Such reasoning is widely used in American politics toda
・
・Obstructionism
directed at entire Obama agenda from inaugu
・Filibuster in the Senate and continued attempts to repeal Oba
Confucius: Rectification of Names
Provincial Museum of
Shandong, China
Jürgen Habermas
・
Lifeworld vs System
Copy JO slide
・
Habermas on “instrumental reason”
He is not opposed to instrumental reason where it is and has been most effective, e.g., in scien
・However, he is committed to a clear separation of systems analysis (SYSTEM) and the more s
・Instrumental reason has short-term interests at heart, subject/object/first-person grammatical s
・
The ultimate problem: colonization
Instrumental reason threatens the Life
・
The Problem: Part 2
Instrumental Reason sees nothing wrong with distortion (even lies) if it is strategically effective
・This more widespread and important than Kyl's “Noble Lie”
・The biggest problem (we believe) is corporate domination of the political system, partly via coo
・And manipulating the public through enormous spending on the media (much of it secretly)
・Congress, for example, often puts vested interests above community interests
・
Habermas's project
Second generation Frankfurt School theorist
・Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of the Enlightenment and extreme pessimism
・Postmodernism's limitation of rationality
・Positivism's ignorance of all but instrumental reason
・Enlightenment as an “unfinished project”
・Habermas would maintain communicative action against the onslaught of instrumental reason
・
“Ideal Speech Situation”
Habermas's use of JL Austin's Speech Act Theory was widely misunderstood
・As idealist metaphysics
・But it was describing a goal for a process of discourse
・Universally seen as major opponent of Derrida's thinking, but ended as “friends” exemplifying
・Habermas's Discourse Principle is radically democratic
・
“Ideal” discourse
Habermas change the term to “idealization”
・Instead of a revolutionary and static “ideal” situation, Habermas was referring to a on-going, “d
・
Communicative Action Theory
For Habermas rationality is inherent in the very attempt at communication
・Involves the very expectation of understanding
・Without which there would be no point in even trying
・CA Theory is directed at norm development through consensus, which instrumental reason is n
・He gets there through “universal pragmatics”
・The conditions necessary for communication to take place
・People with different goals are able to create norms
・
Habermas's Discourse Principle
Openness and full inclusion of everybody affected
・Symmetrical distribution of communication rights
・The absence of force in which the “forceless force of the better argument” is decisive
・The sincerity of the utterances of all participants is assumed
・The outcome of such a rational discourse is a rational consensus to which all possibly affected
・
Our proposal, following Madison...
Create in the democratic wing of the Democratic Party a “faction” that would follow Habermasia
・And engender Discourse Ethics
・Attracting a political following that can influence American political discourse
・While even Habermas felt an element of pessimism over the role of politics in Lifeworld discou
・
For Enlightenment and Democracy
It's our
・only hope!
・