Subject: Re: HAB: The ethic of discussion and the problem of time
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 23:44:34 -0600


Ken,

Please give a refence for MCCA.

Thanks,
Pam

----------
> From: Kenneth MacKendrick <kenneth.mackendrick-AT-utoronto.ca>
> To: habermas-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
> Subject: Re: HAB: The ethic of discussion and the problem of time
> Date: Monday, March 02, 1998 7:40 PM
> 
> On Mon, 2 Mar 1998 13:09:16 -0500  Reginald CHEVILLON 
> wrote:
> 
> > Hello
> 
> Hi.
> 
> >   ... But my question is : "How do we know that such 
> discussions would lead to any conclusion at all"?
> 
> Habermas seems implicitly aware of this problem.  On pg. 205 
> of the MCCA he writes "Noncontextual definitions of a moral 
> principle, I admit, have not been satisfactory up to now.  
> Negative versions of the moral principle seem to be a step in 
> the right direction.  They heed the prohibition of graven 
> images, refrain from positive depiction, and as in the case of 
> discourse ethics, refer negatively to the damaged life instead 
> of pointing affirmatively to the good life."
> 
> >   As a conclusion, I think that the ethic of discussion can't 
> found the moral by reason. There's no real difference between 
> it and a strategical action, UNLESS there is a primitive 
> instinctive or cultural need and knowledge of justice, fairness, 
> good...
> 
> Habermas does argue this in his anthropological work.  See 
> Communicative Action and the Evolution of Society or see pg. 
> 199 of MCCA - "In anthropological terms, morality is a safety 
> device compensating for a vulnerability built into the 
> sociocultural form of life...."  I think it could be argued that 
> Habermas's model DEPENDS on a specific understanding or 
> interpretation of what it means to be human.  His work on 
> reason and morality stands (and/or falls) squarely on the 
> shoulders of this anthropological reading.  For Habermas 
> human beings are essentially rational and essentially moral... 
> with all of the problems that tag along with essentialist 
> readings....
> 
> ken, guess what i've been reading lately....
> 
> 
> 
> 
>      --- from list habermas-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---


     --- from list habermas-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---