Subject: Re: HAB: Hab's sociocentrism
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 12:07:58 GMT


Dear Stephen,

Apologies for the misnomer. I have had to deal with a semi-serious health 
crisis with one of my children in the last ten days and my brain was not 
altogether engaged with this work at hand.

Thank you for your response.

>1.  The phrase you're seeking is, "Ontogeny recapitulates
>phylogeny."

I think we are at least in agreement below that JH wants to give * a precise 
theory of social functioning*. This is the fine line JH treads between 
Parson's structural functionalism and Luhmann's functional structuralism. In 
my opinion, JH keeps the structuralism and varies the formula with Piaget's 
genetic analysis.

>2.  Given that Habermas wants to construct a precise theory of
>social functioning, his using Piaget's model as an analogical
>device would be a mistake, for precisely the reason you suggest:
>it ain't that simple.  H. would be making what is termed the
>"fallacy of composition":  that there are no emergent properties
>of a collection beyond the properties of its components.  In
>sociological theory this problem is known as the micro-macro
>problem.
>
>3.  The details of how the Piagetian approach (spec., Kohlberg's
>work) can be applied to collectivities are worked out in Chapters
>2-4 of my "Defining Political Development", with some additional
>theorization being presented in my article, "Defining Political
>Culture".  The book can be found at
>	http://www.d.umn.edu/~schilton/Articles/DPD.html
>and the article can be found at
>	http://www.d.umn.edu/~schilton/Articles/GPD6.html
>You (M.P.) will find that your concerns are
>well-founded;  societal development is like individual cognitive /
>moral development, but other dynamics need to be introduced.  But
>at the end of the day, my analysis shows that H.'s use of
>Piagetian theory remains valid.

Steve, I hope to reconnect on this issue once things settle down, and I can 
read what you have written.

Thanks,

MattP
School of Philosophy
University of Tasmania

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