The Rorty-Habermas debate : toward freedom as responsibility.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kilanowski, Marcin.

Series:

SUNY Series in American Philosophy and Cultural Thought

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rorty, Richard.

Habermas, Jürgen.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (302 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, 2021.

Summary:

Argues that out of the confrontation between Rorty and Habermas, we might be able to find a new way to think about the kind of politics we need today.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

From the Author

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Specter of Auschwitz

Pragmatism

On Sources and Crucial Issues

Step by Step

I Opening: First Comes Dewey

From Crisis to New Liberalism

Individual and Community

Which Political Form?

Radical Democracy

Dialogue and Education

Toward Great Community

Utopian Project

Followers

II On Rorty's Sociopolitical Thought

Rorty and Dewey

Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature

Contingency

Ethnocentrism

Whichever Kind of Politics

Breaking with the Tradition

From Contingency to Irony

On Contingency

Two Approaches to Truth

Contingency of Language and Self

New Languages, New Vocabularies, New Ways of Thinking

Rationality

Relativism?

Beyond Relativism

Usefulness

The Place of "Truth" in the Political Sphere

On Irony

Ironists and Metaphysicians

Ironic Theorists and Liberal Theorists

Freeing from Metaphysical Longing

Toward an Ideal Liberal State

On Ethnocentrism

Contingent Liberal Society

Toward a New Liberal Discourse

On Liberal Institutions

From Deconstruction to Alternative Solutions

Toward Tolerance

Problems and Progress

Toward Limiting Cruelty and Suffering

Liberal Utopia

From Objectivity to Solidarity

Pain, Suffering, and Human Solidarity

Solidarity is Contingent

Communication

Toward Agreement

"Equality of Opportunity" and the "Standard Bourgeois Freedoms"

Objections

Two Basic Objections

Attempt at Answering the First Objection: Does the Concept of Irony Contribute to the Weakening of Liberal Society?

Attempt at Answering the Second Objection: Is Ironism to Be Reconciled with Solidarity?

On Division into the Private and the Public

Blaming the Truth

The Private and the Public.

Can We Make Such a Division?

Rorty's Inconsistence?

Unjustified Fears

Is It Already "As Good"?

All Categories Are Good-As Long as They Bring Us Advantage

Conclusion

III On Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action

From Radical Criticism to Reform

The Structure of the Theory of Communicative Action

Central Problems in the Theory of Action

Communicative Rationality and Communicative Action

Communicative Rationality

Argumentation

Rational Action and Validity Claims

Validity of Expression and Justification

Universal Acceptance

Communicative Action

Lifeworld and System

Lifeworld-Implicit Knowledge and Context

Lifeworld and Formal World-Concepts

Narrowness of Culturalistic Concept of Lifeworld

The Role of Systems

Rationalization of the Lifeworld

Development of Law and Morality-An Aspect of the Rationalization of the Lifeworld

Contingency and Ideologies

Two Types of Action and the Two Mechanisms of Their Coordination

Dangers and the Possibility to Overcome Them

Reification and Cultural Impoverishment

Proving the Thesis on Reification-Juridification

Legal Institutions

Overcoming Dangers

Competition of Social Integration Principles

Constructing a Theory

Toward Universal Validity of Our Understanding of Rationality

Proof

No Ultimate Justifications-No Fundamentalist Claims

Are Validity Claims Universal?

Toward Social Theory

Social Theory-Societal Rationalization

The Ideal of the Fully Rational Life-Form-Utopianism

Cooperative Effort

Communication-Premises and Arguments (Ethics of Discourse)

Communication, History, and the Unity of Reason

Toward Modern Society

Recapitulation

IV On the Convergence of the Perspectives of Rorty and Habermas

The Convergence

Different Rhetoric

Rorty's Fear of Idealization.

Idealized Rational Acceptability

Presence of Idealization in the Philosophies of Habermas and Rorty

They Do Not Differ That Much

New Worlds

Creating New Worlds

Validity Claims

Rorty against the Idea of Communicative Rationality

Necessary Communicative Rationality

Difference

Issue of Understanding Human Nature

To Recapitulate: Much in Common

What Kind of Politics?

Democracy

Liberal Democracy without Philosophical Justification

Proceduralist Deliberative Politics

Toward Freedom as Responsibility

Two Concepts of Liberty

Rorty-Against the "Positive" Version of Freedom

Common Moral Convictions

Beyond Truth-Advocating Pluralism

Decentered Vision of the World

Reaching Understanding and Reproduction

Toward a Compromise

Concrete Values

Responsibility to Our Community

For Us to Be Better

Not to Hurt

Resigning from Violence

Toward Responsible Freedom

To Take Responsibility

Toward Liberal Utopia

Social Hope

Liberal Society

Communication and Complications

On Role of Philosophy and Philosophers, and on Responsibility

V Postscript: From Dewey to Rorty and Habermas

The Main Themes

Philosophy

From Truth to Freedom

Democracy-One of the Ways

Progress and Free Communication

Pragmatism and Utopias

Aims

Formal Conditions

Arriving at a Consensus

Answering the Main Question

What to Do in Order for It Not to Happen Again?

It Will Be the Way We Decide

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9781438483566

1438483562

OCLC:

1244617847