Language and Reason: A Study of Habermas's Pragmatics

Front Cover
MIT Press, 1994 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 207 pages

Language and Reason opens up new territory for social theorists by providing the first general introduction to Habermas's program of formal pragmatics: his reconstruction of the universal principles of possible understanding that, he argues, are already operative in everyday communicative practices.

Readers of Jürgen Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action and his later social theory know that the idea of communicative rationality is central to his version of critical theory. Language and Reason opens up new territory for social theorists by providing the first general introduction to Habermas's program of formal pragmatics: his reconstruction of the universal principles of possible understanding that, he argues, are already operative in everyday communicative practices. Philosophers of language will discover surprising and fruitful connections between Habermas's account of language and validity (especially his theory of meaning) and their own concerns.

 

Contents

An Initial Specification
29
Speech Acts and Validity Claims
51
From Comprehen
95
Concluding Discussion
131
Notes
167
Works by Habermas Cited in the Text
195
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

account of meaning action oriented Acts and Validity assertion assertoric bermas chapter claim to normative claim to truthfulness Claus Offe cognitivist concept of communicative constative speech acts context critical evaluation critical theory critique cultural discourse discourse ethics distinction Dummett's Entgegnung everyday communicative action extent formal pragmatic forms of argumentation forms of communicative functions Habermas argues Habermas's theory hearer Ibid idea illocutionary force implicit instance integration internal connection interpersonal relationship interpretation intersubjective Jürgen Habermas knowledge lifeworld linguistic logocentric mentation mode of language modern societies Nachmetaphysisches Denken normative rightness objectivating obligation oriented toward understanding participants possible Pragmatic Theory presupposition processes propositional truth question rationality reaching understanding refers regulative speech acts Reply semantic speech-act theory spheres strategic action strong idealizations suggests theory of communicative Theory of Meaning thesis tion tive truth claims truth conditions truth-conditional semantics understand an utterance Universal Pragmatics validation conditions validity claim raised Verständigung

References to this book

About the author (1994)

Maeve Cooke is Associate Professor of German Social and Political Thought at University College Dublin. She is the author of Language and Reason: A Study of Habermas's Pragmatics (MIT Press, 1994) and editor of On the Pragmatics of Communication (MIT Press, 1998), a collection of essays by Jürgen Habermas.

Bibliographic information

TitleLanguage and Reason: A Study of Habermas's Pragmatics
Studies in contemporary German social thought
AuthorMaeve Cooke
Editionillustrated, reprint, revised
PublisherMIT Press, 1994
ISBN0262531453, 9780262531450
Length207 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Pragmatics
Philosophy / General
Philosophy / History & Surveys / Modern
Philosophy / Logic
  
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