Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action

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MIT Press, 1990 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 225 pages

This long-awaited book sets out the implications of Habermas's theory of communicative action for moral theory. "Discourse ethics" attempts to reconstruct a moral point of view from which normative claims can be impartially judged. The theory of justice it develops replaces Kant's categorical imperative with a procedure of justification based on reasoned agreement among participants in practical discourse.Habermas connects communicative ethics to the theory of social action via an examination of research in the social psychology of moral and interpersonal development. He aims to show that our basic moral intuitions spring from something deeper and more universal than contingent features of our tradition, namely from normative presuppositions of social interaction that belong to the repertoire of competent agents in any society. Jürgen Habermas is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt.

From inside the book

 

Contents

Reconstruction and Interpretation in the Social
21
Notes on a Program
43
Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action
116
Does Hegels Critique
195
Index
217
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action
Jürgen Habermas,Thomas MacCarthy
No preview available - 1990

Common terms and phrases

action oriented actors analysis Apel assertoric attitude basic behavior categorical imperative claims to validity cognitive cognitivism cognitivist Communicative Action concept Consciousness and Communicative conventional stage criticism culture differentiation discourse ethics everyday fact fallibilism Habermas Hegel hermeneutic individual intersubjective issues Jürgen Habermas justification Kant Kant's Kantian Karl-Otto Apel Kohlberg Lawrence Kohlberg lifeworld means metaethical moral argumentation Moral Consciousness moral development moral intuitions moral judgment moral point moral principle moral theory Morality and Ethical normative validity objection objectivating oriented toward reaching performative contradiction person perspective taking Philosophy as Stand-In point of view postconventional practical discourse practice of everyday preconventional presuppositions of argumentation problem procedure question rational rational reconstructions reaching understanding reason reciprocity Reconstruction and Interpretation reflective relations role rules Selman's skeptic Social Sciences social world speaker perspectives speech acts stage of interaction stages of moral Stand-In and Interpreter tion transcendental truth Tugendhat universal validity claims

References to this book

About the author (1990)

Jurgen Habermas is a German sociologist who studied at the universities of Gottingen, Zurich, and Bonn. He taught at Frankfurt am Main, Marburg, and Heidelberg before becoming professor of philosophy at the University of Frankfurt. His works, widely translated, have made him one of the most influential social theorists of our time. Habermas is considered by some to be an intellectual heir to Max Weber and what has been called the Frankfurt School. His work has centered mainly on the role of communication and technology in changing patterns of social relations, human activity, and values. An outspoken advocate of the Enlightenment and a champion of reason, he has also cautioned that the technical rationality associated with modern capitalism often functions as ideology and may stand in the way of human progress.

Bibliographic information

TitleMoral Consciousness and Communicative Action
Studies in contemporary German social thought
AuthorJürgen Habermas
Editionillustrated
PublisherMIT Press, 1990
ISBN0262581183, 9780262581189
Length225 pages
Subjects › 

Language Arts & Disciplines / Communication Studies
Philosophy / Ethics & Moral Philosophy
Philosophy / General
  
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